Taxonomy & naming
Chanda pulcinella was described by Kottelat in 2003 as Parambassis pulcinella, from a stream between Kyondaw and Phadaw in Kayin State, Myanmar, near the Thai border. The parentheses around the authority record the move to Chanda, and stores still list it as Parambassis pulcinella. It belongs to Ambassidae, the glassfishes.
Morphology
FishBase gives a maximum of 3 in SL, which makes it larger than the commonly kept Indian glassfish. It is a compressed, deep-bodied glassfish; a full description is in Kottelat's original paper.
Habitat
FishBase classes it as a freshwater, pelagic, tropical fish. It occurs in Myanmar, with the type locality in a large clear stream near rapids or large riffles, and FishBase notes that it also occurs in headwaters of the same basin in Thailand. That makes it a stream fish rather than a still-water one.
Feeding
Diet is not recorded in the FishBase entry. Glassfishes feed on zooplankton and small insects taken in open water.
Mating
Courtship and spawning behaviour have not been described for this species.
Breeding
FishBase has no reproduction entry for this species.
In the aquarium
A shoaling fish for a long tank with clean, moving water. Keep it in a group with small peaceful tankmates and offer small live and frozen foods. Temperature, pH and hardness are not recorded for the species.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assessed Chanda pulcinella as Data Deficient in 2011.