The Siamese tigerfish (''Datnioides pulcher''), also known as the Siamese tiger perch, is a critically endangered Asian fish native to the

Chao Phraya The Chao Phraya ( or ; th, แม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา, , or ) is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand. E ...

Mae Klong The Mae Klong (, , ), sometimes spelled Mae Khlong or Meklong, is a river in western Thailand. The river begins at the confluence of the Khwae Noi (Khwae Sai Yok) and the Khwae Yai River (Khwae Si Sawat) in Kanchanaburi, it passes Ratchaburi ...

and

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , ...

basins. It has vertical yellow and black stripes running the length of its body. 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 conv ...

has a spiny appearance. Siamese tigerfish grow to in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

. The many species within ''

Datnioides ''Datnioides'' is a genus of fish known commonly as tigerfish, tiger perch or freshwater tripletails, but all of these common names are also used for other families. It is the only genus in the family Datnioididae. These fish are found in fresh ...

'' are quite commonly confused. ''Datnioides pulcher'' is the Siamese tigerfish, or wide-bar datnoid. ''

Datnioides microlepis ''Datnioides microlepis'', also known as the Indonesian tiger perch, Indo datmoid, Indonesian tigerfish, or finescale tigerfish, is a species of freshwater fish endemic to the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia ( Sumatra and Kalimantan). Previous re ...

'' is the Indonesian tiger datnoid. ''

Datnioides polota ''Datnioides polota'', commonly known as the silver tigerfish or four-banded tiger perch, is a species of datnioidid fish native to brackish and fresh waters near the coast like mangrove, lagoons, estuaries and lower parts of rivers from northe ...

'' is the silver datnoid.

In the aquarium

It prefers a pH of 7.6–8.0, and a temperature of 22–26 °C (72–79 °F). The Siamese tigerfish is predatory and will eat smaller fish, various live foods, and frozen foods. Many hobbyists pellet-train their datnoids to reduce the risk of disease and parasites from live food. Captive ones are generally smaller than their wild counterparts, though may still require a large aquarium.

Conservation status

''D. pulcher'' is protected in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and is on the IUCN Red List as critically endangered.Binohlan, C. B., Torres, A. G., & van Uitert, K. (n.d.). Datnioides pulcher (Kottelat, 1998); Siamese tiger perch. In FishBase. Retrieved October 6, 2013, from http://www.fishbase.org/summary/50395

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siamese Tigerfish Percoidei Fish described in 1998 Fish of Thailand

In the aquarium

Conservation status

See also

References