The Ceylon killifish (UDA HANDAYA / උඩ හඳයා)(''Aplocheilus dayi'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

killifish A killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish (including families Aplocheilidae, Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae, Profundulidae and Valenciidae). All together, there are 1,270 species of killifish, the biggest family ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Sri Lanka. This species grows to a length of . Males and females have a black dot at the rear end of the base of the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

. The females lay 50–150 eggs. The specific name of this fish honours the Inspector-General of Fisheries in India Francis Day (1829-1889), who first reported this fish, although he identified it as ''

Aplocheilus panchax The blue panchax or whitespot (''Aplocheilus panchax'') is a common freshwater fish found in a large variety of habitats due to its high adaptability. This species is native to southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia. It has been discovered in t ...

''.

References

Tropical fish Taxa named by Franz Steindachner Fish described in 1892 Ceylon killifish {{Cyprinodontiformes-stub