The small rice fish Oryzias latipes was domesticated by humans at an early stage and was one of the very first exotic fish species to arrive in Germany before the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It became the pet of geneticists, so to speak – especially in Japan – who conducted and still conduct basic research on this fish species. Medaka – as they are known in Japanese – have only come back into the focus of western aquarists in recent years.
As medaka can be kept and bred all year round in small outdoor ponds in Japan and the Japanese are known to be skilled breeders, numerous breeding forms were created relatively quickly, which are supposed to differ from each other, especially in their top view, as this is how they are seen in ponds. In addition to the classic yellow, orange and wild-colored animals with glittering scales, there are also white and black ones. The more striking of the breeding forms have also found their way into the farms of professional breeders in South East Asia and have since fallen very significantly in price. We currently have a whole range of medaka from there in stock, e.g. gold, orange, sparkled blue, sparkled orange and the black presented in the pictures in this post.
For our customers: the animals have code 339750 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesale.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
