The dracula fish (''Danionella dracula'') 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 ...

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

danionin The danionins are a group of small, minnow-type fish belonging to the family Cyprinidae. Members of this group are mostly in the genera '' Danio'', '' Devario'', and ''Rasbora''._They_are_primarily_native_to_the_ s_...''._They_are_primarily_nati ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

from the

cyprinid Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest ver ...

family. It is a freshwater fish

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 ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. A close relative is ''

Danio rerio The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family (Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (and thus often ca ...

'', the

zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family (Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (and thus often ca ...

of aquariums. It is named dracula after its unusual "fangs"; male dracula fish have protruding tooth-like bones stemming from their jawbones. Males have been observed using their fangs to spar with other males.Black, Richard (2009-03-11)
'Dracula' fish shows baby teeth

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

. Retrieved on 2009-03-11. Identified in April 2007 from specimens shipped to the United Kingdom in a consignment of aquarium fishes, the dracula fish has so far only been found in the wild in a small stream at Sha Du Zup between

Mogaung Mogaung ( my, မိုးကောင်း ; ( Shan: မိူင်းၵွင်း) is a town in Kachin State, Myanmar. It is situated on the Mandalay-Myitkyina railway line. History Mogaung or Möngkawng was the name and capital (roya ...

and

Tanai Danai ( my, တနိုင်းမြို့) is a town in Kachin State, in the northernmost part of Myanmar. Kachin State ( Kachin: ''Wunpawng Mungdan''; Burmese: ကချင်ပြည်နယ်) is the northernmost state of Myanmar. ...

in northern Myanmar. It is a colourless miniature species and grows to a maximum size of around . The fish has an elongate body with a large head and eyes. Dracula fish lack scales and the upper body is dominated by the jaws on large males. Much of the fish's structure is

cartilaginous Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck a ...

: it has 44 fewer bones than the zebrafish, and thus it is translucent and appears similar to larval forms. The natural diet of the dracula fish is unknown but in captivity it eats shrimp larvae, small nematodes and fish flakes. Close relatives of the fish feed upon small

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

and

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

.Jaggard, Victoria (2009-03-11)
Photo In The News: New "Dracula" Fish Discovered
'' National Geographic''. Retrieved on 2009-03-12. The dracula fish is unusual in that its ancestors lost their true teeth around 50 million years ago, but re-evolved its bone fangs as a replacement around 30 million years ago. The species is

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

in that the female does not have such prominent bone fangs. It becomes sexually mature while its body is still not fully developed; scientists speculate that this may happen because younger fish were more successful reproductively. Ichthyologist Dr Ralf Britz, who named the fish after Bram Stoker's character

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some ...

, stated that the dracula fish "is one of the most extraordinary

vertebrates Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

discovered in the last few decades."Devlin, Kate (2009-03-11)
New 'dracula' fish discovered
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. Retrieved on 2009-03-11.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dracula Fish Danionella Fish of Myanmar Endemic fauna of Myanmar Cyprinid fish of Asia Fish described in 2009