White Cloud Mountain Minnow

White Cloud Mountain Minnow

Tanicthys Albonubes

The White Cloud Mountain Minnow, more commonly known as just the ‘White Cloud’ is a great beginner fish, staying small and peaceful, whilst being cheap, attractive, and tolerating a wide breadth of water parameters.

Locale: Originally recorded in streams of high Mount Baiyun, also known as White Cloud Mountain, hence the name of the little minnow - however a handful of populations have been recorded throughout China and a couple in North Vietnam - has been most often collected in clear water pools and streams with dense vegetation found between rock piles

Fun fact: The Genus name ‘Tanichthys’ originates from the name of a Chinese Boy Scout, Tan Kan Fei, who first collected White Clouds in 1939.

Care:

Care difficulty - Beginner, hardy schooling fish.

Temperament - Peaceful, schools tightly when in large group sizes (e.g. 20+), however 6+ is recommended as minimum school size.

Adult size - 2.5-3.5cm

Diet - Omnivorous; will eat both ends of the spectrum, from filament algae to small invertebrates and microcrustaceans, so in the Aquaria it is best to feed a staple diet of smaller pellets or flakes, and can have frozen or even live food dietary supplements, such as live or frozen brine shrimp, live black worms, frozen bloodworms, frozen mysis with spirulina, these should only be fed once or twice per fortnight.

Habitat - In the aquaria White Clouds are very unfussy however it is always best to replicate the natural environment of a fish - though there is a limited data pool on where White Clouds are naturally found, at times going almost 20 years without any wild specimens being recorded. Some examples of wild locales have been described as clear water streams and pools, with a fine, dark gravel substrate, not much wood present in the water bodies, dense vegetation between large rock piles, assumed to be used as spawning sites, with marginal vegetation surrounding the water’s edge.

Optimal Water Parameters:

Temperature: 14-24°c

pH: 6.0-7.5

GH: 3-18

KH: 1-6

Fish size, sex, exact colour and patterning may vary from photo.