Japanese Rice Fish - Blue White Madaka - Oryzias latipes
Japanese Rice Fish, also known as medaka, are small freshwater fish native to East Asia, particularly Japan. They have slender bodies with a golden or metallic sheen and come in various color variations. These peaceful and sociable fish are easy to care for and suitable for community aquariums.
They thrive in well-planted tanks with a temperature range of 17 to 25 degree celcius and a pH level between 6.0 and 8.0.
Medaka are prolific breeders and exhibit unique mating behaviors, making them popular choices among freshwater aquarium enthusiasts.
Tank Recommendations for your Platinum Medaka
One thing that makes Japanese rice fish such a great choice for your freshwater aquarium is that they're hardy and unfussy. They can withstand a very wide range of water parameters, including temps down to freezing and over 100 °F! As such, they won't drop dead from small beginner mistakes.
Of course, as aquarists, we want our fish to live as long as possible and thrive in our tanks, so let's not expose them to extremes like this. Instead, you should only introduce your Japanese rice fish into a fully cycled aquarium. Keeping the pH around the neutral mark works well. A heater isn't necessary if your home stays at room temp.
As always, you should perform weekly water changes with temperature-matched water to keep your fish healthy.
pH: 7-8
Temperature: 64.5-71.5 °F (they tolerate a very wide range, but this is considered ideal)
Total Dissolved Solids: 100-400
Feeding your Blue White Medaka
In the wild, Japanese rice fish are helpful to have around: they eat mosquito larvae and other small bugs, keeping ponds from becoming infested. In the aquarium, these micropredators can be fed a staple diet of small floating carnivore pellets or flakes.
You can supplement their diet using frozen or live foods, which will be greatly appreciated.
Suitable Tank Buddies
Japanese rice fish are peaceful beings. They do fine in a community set-up, but it's important to keep in mind that due to their preference for lower temperatures, they don't match well with many of the popular tropical fish found in your local pet store.
You could combine these fish with "regular" aquarium species, but this would require cranking up the temperature, which shortens the lifespan of the rice fish.
As such, we prefer an unheated tank with species like:
- White cloud mountain minnow (Tanichthys albonubes)
- Galaxy rasbora (Danio margaritatus)
- Rosy loach (Yunnanilus sp. 'Rosy')
- Brachygobius gobies (brackish)
- Panda Garra (Garra flavatra)
- Dwarf chain loach (Ambastaia sidthimunki)
- Some nerite snails (like black nerites)
And for our fellow shrimp lovers... yes, these fish are compatible with many shrimp species. You shouldn't keep them with your most expensive colonies, because they will eat baby shrimp if they can. However, in a nicely planted set-up, Neocaridina and some Caridina dwarf shrimp will thrive alongside them just fine!