''Rasboroides vaterifloris'', known as the pearly rasbora, vateria flower rasbora or fire rasbora, is a species of freshwater

cyprinid Cyprinidae is a Family (biology), family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family, including the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives the barb (fish), barbs and barbel (fish), barbels, among others. Cyprinidae is the ...

fish

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. It can be found in the shallow waters of shaded, slow-flowing clear streams with a silt substrate. It also prefers areas with plentiful leaf debris. Its diet consists of

detritus In biology, detritus ( or ) is organic matter made up of the decomposition, decomposing remains of organisms and plants, and also of feces. Detritus usually hosts communities of microorganisms that colonize and decomposition, decompose (Reminera ...

and terrestrial

insects Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed ...

. This species can reach a length of TL. It can also be found in the

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

trade. ''R. vaterifloris'' was formerly believed to be the only species in the genus and found in several river basins. A study in 2013 found that it was restricted to the

Kalu River Kalu Ganga (; literally: Black River) is a river in Sri Lanka. The river originates from Sri Pada Peak Wilderness Sanctuary, reaching the sea at Kalutara after a journey. The Black River flows through the Ratnapura and the Kalutara District and ...

basin, with related species inhabiting other basins.Batuwita, Sudesh; de Silva, M.; Edirisinghe, U. (November 2013). "A review of the danionine genera Rasboroides and Horadandia (Pisces: Cyprinidae), with description of a new species from Sri Lanka". Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. 24 (2): 121–140. However, a comprehensive

taxonomic 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...

review in 2018 based on

morphometry Morphometrics (from Ancient Greek, Greek μορΦή ''morphe'', "shape, form", and -μετρία ''metria'', "measurement") or morphometry refers to the quantitative analysis of ''form'', a concept that encompasses size and shape. Morphometric ...

meristics Meristics is an area of zoology and botany which relates to counting quantitative features of animals and plants, such as the number of fins or scales in fish. A meristic (countable trait) can be used to describe a particular species, or used to i ...

and

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

found that one of the species recognized in 2013, '' R. nigromarginatus'' (also restricted to the Kalu River basin), is a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''R. vaterifloris''.Sudasinghe, H., J. Herath, R. Pethiyagoda and M. Meegaskumbura. (2018). Undocumented Translocations Spawn Taxonomic Inflation in Sri Lankan Fire Rasboras (Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae). PeerJ. 6:e6084. Although this expands its range in the Kalu River basin, ''R. vaterifloris'' is more

threatened A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

than the relatively widespread '' R. pallidus''.

References

Rasboroides Fish of Asia Taxa named by Paulus Edward Pieris Deraniyagala Fish described in 1930 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Danioninae-stub