# "Dwarf Vietnamese Cardinal Minnow" Any experience?



## STS_1OO (Nov 28, 2012)

Hey folks, 

I ran across these rather small fish labeled as "Dwarf Vietnamese Cardinal Minnow". I'm fairly certain they're _Tanichthys micagemmae _. I've been looking for a small schooling/shoaling fish to occupy the top half of my 5G tank. I was limiting my hunt to the many microrasboras but they've been difficult to find near my area. 

I've read that these minnows only get to be .75-.8". Can anyone corroborate this? 

I think they'd be a good candidate if that's the case. Thoughts?

(THanks for the help!)


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## Sake (Mar 30, 2012)

White cloud minnow is a more common name. They require cooler temps tops if I recall is 73f, so depending on what other fish you have they may not be a good match.


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## STS_1OO (Nov 28, 2012)

White Cloud Minnows are _Tanichthys albonubes_ if I'm not mistaken and I think they get to be larger. 

My temperature is usually in the low 70's and the only other fish I have are pygmy cories. Other than that, I have Cherry Shrimp.


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## Sake (Mar 30, 2012)

All of the Dwarf vietnamese cardinal minnow that I have found around here are just white cloud minnows, I assumed it would be the same with you.


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## STS_1OO (Nov 28, 2012)

Sake said:


> All of the Dwarf vietnamese cardinal minnow that I have found around here are just white cloud minnows, I assumed it would be the same with you.


You could be right - I'm going back to the pet store today now that they're actual fish person is there. I suspect they'd use White Cloud Minnow bc its more recognizable but its not unheard of pet stores deceiving knowingly or unknowingly lol. 

However, _Tanichthys micagemmae_ is different than the White Cloud Minnow, that much I've researched.


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## blink (Feb 22, 2012)

I've seen Tanichthys micagemmae side by side with regular white cloud minnows and they were about the same size, but I do not know the age. They are actually pretty easy to tell apart when you see both at the same time, I don't recall the differences but it was obvious enough that I asked the LFS staff what they were.

Sorry I can't be of more help but I've never owned them, although all the research I did says "treat the same as white cloud mountain minnows".


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## VivaDaWolf (Feb 5, 2012)

Its easy to tell, the stripe in the more common one is higher up on the body. In the vietnamese white clouds, the stripe goes right through the middle of the body

I have both in my tank right now, and the vietnamese ones are smaller than the regular white clouds.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

The mature males would sometimes develop extra long fins too. It's apparently natural.









http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/tanichthys-micagemmae/


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

I have some VWC and they are pretty small. The largest one I have maybe breaks an inch or so. Beautiful fish known as the poor man's neon tetra haha  I grabbed 50 for $20 locally and started breeding them.


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## AricTelian (Apr 1, 2016)

You can also tell Tanichthys Albonubes from Tanichthys Micagemmae from their dorsal and Anal fin colors. T Albonubes has red dorsal coloration. T Micagemmae has the reverse.


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## Paradisefish (Aug 27, 2017)

This is a very late reply, but I noticed the large amounts of confusion and misleading comments that I just had to put it out here. I love these fish, so I want people to know about them rightfully. 
Dwarf Cardinal Minnows, Cardinal Minnows, and Vietnamese White Cloud Minnows are synonymous. They are all the same Tanichthys Micagemmae. As far as I researched, there are no "dwarf" variety of this specie. I believe they said dwarf because they are indeed, SMALLER than the more commonly known White Cloud Mountain Minnow (Tanichthys Albonubes). 
Apologetically, whoever said that they can be distinguished by the coloring on their dorsal fins is misinformed. I think they did a quick Google image search on them and found the pictures of the long finned sub variety of the WCMM, aka Meteor Minnow. They indeed have striking red in their dorsal fins, but some plain White Clouds don't. Also, some Cardinal Minnows have red in their dorsal fins. 
Distinguishing by fin color is only useful between Cardinal Minnows and the lesser known and very rare to find third related specie, Tanichthys Thacbaensis (aka. Tanichthys sp. 'Vietnam', Lemon White Cloud Minnow, Lemon Yellow White Cloud). They look almost identical except the latter specie has no red on their pelvic and anal fins leaving a brightly yellow hue, hence the name Lemon Yellow.


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