The photo above depicts a live specimen photographed out of water, so it doesn’t accurately reflect the live underwater appearance of this new species.  The Zootaxa paper describes Danio htamanthinus has having a “brilliant” red stripe from eye to caudal peduncle (tail).  It also features fins pigmented in bright yellow and black tiger-like stripes towards its bottom back half of its body (similar to Danio choprae).

Danio htamanthinus is so far only known from two small streams at Chindwin River in Myanmar (Southeast Asia).  Danio htamanthinus is most similar to Danio choprae and D.flagrans, which are both also from North Myanmar.  Sixteen of the 25 valid Danio species are found in Myanmar.

The beauty of some of these danios make them very popular for aquarists.  However, many of these Danio species (including D.htamanthinus) appear to have very limited wild distribution, which consequently poses a real danger of overfishing them for the aquarium trade.  The good news is that, like the recently discovered Celestial Pearl Danios (D.margaritatus) that were also in danger of overfishing due to their popularity, all danios have proven to be very easy to breed in captivity, and the new danio should prove no different.

Type locality where Danio htamanthinus is found