Taxonomy & naming
Britz, Kullander and Rüber described Dario tigris in 2022 from an unnamed mountain stream south of Mogaung in the Ayeyarwaddy River basin, Kachin State, Myanmar. It belongs to the Badidae and to Dario, the genus of the tiny, brightly marked Asian chameleonfishes that includes Dario dario and Dario kajal.
Morphology
One of the smallest fishes in the trade: FishBase gives a maximum of 0.5 in SL. Members of the genus are slim-bodied with a short head, and males carry the stronger colour and finnage.
Habitat
FishBase lists D. tigris as a freshwater, benthopelagic fish from Myanmar. The type locality is a mountain stream. No temperature or pH range is recorded.
Feeding
Diet is not recorded for this species. Dario in general take very small live foods such as copepods, baby brine shrimp and microworms, and they struggle to compete with larger tankmates for them.
Mating
Courtship has not been described for this species. Male Dario display to females with raised fins and heightened colour.
Breeding
Breeding of D. tigris is not documented in the sources available to the atlas. Dario species spawn among plants or in crevices and the pair does not guard the eggs for long.
In the aquarium
Keep it in a small, quiet, well-planted tank with leaf litter, in a group, with only tankmates small enough not to out-eat it. It is offered by several specialist retailers.
Conservation
FishBase records no IUCN assessment. The species was described only in 2022 and its known range is one small stream system.