The
zebra danio or
zebrafish (
Brachydanio rerio) is tropical fish belonging to the minnow family (
Cyprinidae). It grows to about 6 cm, making it one of the largest of the
danios, and lives for around 5 years. Like other danios it is omnivorous and gets along well with other fish in
community tanks. Zebra Danios serve as a common and useful
model organism for studies of
vertebrate development, in part because their embryos are transparent. Thus, researchers can mutate a danio and see the effects of the genetic changes on its development. Because of this interest it has been one of the first organisms to have its
genome sequenced.
Other fish also share the name zebrafish.
External Resource:
The Zebrafish Information Network (http://zfin.org/cgi-bin/webdriver?MIval=aa-ZDB_home.apg)