Neon Green Rasbora Care Guide - Aquarium Tips, Diet & Breeding

The Neon Green Rasbora is a tiny, brilliantly coloured schooling fish with a slender body and a vivid yellow-green to blue-green lateral stripe. Under aquarium lighting, its reflective colour can appear almost fluorescent, especially when the fish are relaxed and moving together as a group. A subtle darker marking along the body helps accentuate the luminous stripe.

These active but generally peaceful rasboras spend much of their time in the middle and upper areas of the aquarium. They are more confident and display better colour when kept in a proper shoal, where they frequently weave through plants and perform brief, harmless social displays.

In the wild, Microdevario kubotai inhabits small forest streams and quiet tributaries with clear water, gentle flow and plenty of submerged vegetation. Leaf litter, roots and shaded banks provide cover, while the species picks at tiny aquatic organisms and other small food particles.

Their compact size and striking colour have made Neon Green Rasboras popular inhabitants of planted nano and community aquariums. Despite their delicate appearance, a well-established group is lively and engaging, offering constant movement without overwhelming larger planted displays.

Neon Green Rasboras come from clear, slow-flowing forest streams and tributaries in southern Myanmar and western Thailand, within the Salween and Tenasserim drainage regions of Southeast Asia.

A group should have at least a 40-litre aquarium, with a tank measuring around 60 cm long by 30 cm wide providing a better swimming footprint than a tall aquarium. Use a mature, stable setup with gentle filtration, open areas for schooling and dense plants around the sides and back. Dark sand or fine gravel, driftwood, roots, leaf litter and floating plants help recreate their shaded forest-stream habitat and make their colours stand out. Keep the aquarium securely covered because small rasboras can jump.

Up to 2.5 cm (1 inch) in total length; females are usually slightly larger and deeper-bodied than males.

Offer a varied diet of finely crushed quality flakes, nano pellets and small frozen or live foods such as baby brine shrimp, daphnia, cyclops and grindal worms. Their small mouths require appropriately sized food, and occasional live or frozen offerings help maintain colour and condition. Feed small portions once or twice daily, ensuring all food is eaten quickly.

Neon Green Rasboras are peaceful community fish and suit similarly small, calm tankmates such as celestial pearl danios, chili rasboras, other small Microdevario and Boraras species, pygmy corydoras, otocinclus and small freshwater shrimp. Avoid large, boisterous or predatory fish, including angelfish, larger gouramis, aggressive barbs and many medium-sized cichlids, as they may frighten or eat them. Their tiny mouths and retiring nature also make them unsuitable for competitive or highly active communities.

Neon Green Rasboras are egg-scattering fish that can breed in mature, densely planted aquariums. For more reliable results, place a conditioned group in a separate spawning tank containing fine-leaved plants or a spawning mop, gentle filtration and subdued lighting. The adults may eat the eggs, so remove them after spawning or protect the eggs with a mesh barrier. Eggs usually hatch within about 24 to 36 hours, and the tiny fry initially need infusoria or another suitably fine first food before progressing to baby brine shrimp and other small foods.

Females are generally a little larger, fuller through the abdomen and less intensely streamlined than males. Males are usually slimmer and may show stronger, more vivid colour when displaying or competing for the attention of females.