The Indian Glass Fish, Parambassis ranga, is a peaceful little
community fish. It is sometimes known as
The Indian Glassy Fish.
Origin
This fish is native to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. It is found in still or slow moving water
bodies, including artificial ones like rice paddies, and reservoirs. These countries are basically tropical, but
some are very mountainous, and some populations of the Indian Glass Fish come
from cooler areas in these countries.
Most of its habitats have soft,
slightly acidic freshwater. However,
some populations are found in brackish water.
This fish can tolerate slightly
acidic and slightly alkaline conditions, and a pH of between 6.5 and 7.5 is
suggested. They can be acclimatised to
brackish water, but fresh water is probably better. A hardness of up to 20 is well accepted by
this fish. They certainly accept a
temperature of between 20 and 30 degrees C (between 68 and 86 degrees F), but
some reports suggest that their cold tolerance is better than this range
indicates. It may depend on what
population the ancestors of your fish came from.
Food
In the wild the Indian Glass Fish
eats mainly things like small crustaceans, insect larvae and small worms. It is predominantly carnivorous, and although
most of these fish will eat some normal fish food like flakes and granules,
these are not sufficient for their nutrition.
You need to give them live or frozen foods like mosquito larvae, blood
worms, daphnia and brine shrimp as a major supplement to good quality dry food.
Colour
The Indian Glass Fish is mostly
transparent. There is a little bit of
black on it, and the male in breeding 
condition gets a bit of colour as
described under “sexing”. If you see
Indian Glass Fish with other colours, they have been artificially coloured by
being injected with a dye. For an animal
this small an injection like that is a major trauma and many of them die soon
afterwards. The ones that survive long enough
to get to a retail shop are still seriously weakened by their ordeal and are
much more susceptible to a wide range of diseases. Few of them will live very long. If they do survive the colour will
fade.
These dyed fish are sometimes
sold as being natural. This is not
necessarily dishonesty by the shop keeper.
He may have bought the fish in good faith from the evil monster who
mistreated them, or from an unwitting wholesaler who had been deceived. Aquarium shop owners and workers vary in
their knowledge of fish.
Companions
The Indian Glass Fish is a small
and peaceful fish which is an excellent companion for other small and peaceful
fish. It goes well with the smaller and
more peaceful tetras, rasboras and live bearers as well as peaceful catfish
like the Bronze Catfish. Avoid
aggressive or extremely boisterous fish.
Sexing
Males in breeding condition have a
small bit of blue edging on the anal and dorsal fins; they are a slightly
deeper yellow on the body. The swim bladder has a pointed back edge in the males.
Breeding
The Indian Glass fish spawns readily as long as it is
well fed with rich animal based food. It
appears to be stimulated to spawn by both an increase in temperature and the
addition of fresh water. This is
simulating the condition at the beginning of the wet season when the streams
and rivers spread out over the flood plains.
Plants are needed for the spawning.
They are most likely to spawn in the early morning.
Different sources of information are contradictory on
the question of whether or not the parents care for the eggs and young.
Raising the
Babies
The babies of the Indian Glass Fish can be hard to
raise. Apart from being small, they do
not actively pursue food. It needs to be
right in front of them before they will eat it.
In the wild they would be eating the copious amounts of microscopic and
near microscopic living things that grow in the wet season when the water is
flooding over the land. In an aquarium
they need infusoria followed by slightly larger live food as the babies grow.
Not
Threatened
The UICN Redlist has not evaluated the likelihood of
the immediate extinction of this fish, but from other information it is still
very widespread and is not in danger.
Pest Fish
Although I am not aware of this fish being a pest in
any ecosystem it has been introduced to, you should prevent any pet getting
into ecosystem they are not native to.
Common Names
This fish has many common names. Here are a few of them listed by language:
English
“Indian Glass Fish”, “Indian Glassy Fish”, “Glass Perchlet”, “Indian Glass Perch”, “Chanda Ranga” and “Siamese Glass Fish”.
Bengali
“Ranga-chanda”, “Ranga Chanda”, “Chanda” and “চানদা”.
Tamil
“Sonnel”, “Kannadimeen”, “Kaka-semmel” and “கண்ணாடி மீன்”.
Scientific
Names
I grew up with the idea that this fish is called “Chanda ranga”, (Hamilton,
1822) but the accepted name now is “Parambassis ranga” (Hamilton, 1822). Other
scientific names that have been used include: “Pseudambassis ranga” (Hamilton, 1822), “Ambassis ranga” (Hamilton, 1822), “Ambassis alta” Cuvier, 1828, “Ambassis
barlovi” Sykes, 1839, “Ambassis notatus” Blyth, 1860 and “Pseudambassis
notatus” (Blyth, 1860).
Sources
"http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=10130&genusname=Parambassis&speciesname=ranga&AT=Parambassis+ranga&lang=English">http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=10130&genusname=Parambassis&speciesname=ranga&AT=Parambassis+ranga&lang=English
