Striped Bitterling
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The striped bitterling lays its eggs inside the gills of living mussels.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Striped Bitterling
- Scientific name
- Acheilognathus cyanostigma
- Japanese name
- イチモンジタナゴ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Cypriniformes
- Family
- Cyprinidae
- Genus
- Acheilognathus
A bitterling that lives in the slow-flowing middle and lower reaches of rivers, in irrigation channels, and in ponds and marshes.
Its name, meaning 'a straight line', comes from the line that appears along its side when it shows its breeding colors.
It lives in places such as the Lake Biwa–Yodo River system, the Nobi Plain, the Yura and Kino river systems, and Lake Mikata.
How the Striped Bitterling lives
Once they have absorbed their yolk, the young fish swim out of the mussel at night. They grow in groups near the surface by the shore, eating zooplankton. Adults live among water plants and algae, eating algae attached to surfaces. As spawning approaches, males turn pink and establish territories around mussels.
三重県総合博物館大阪府立環境農林水産総合研究所Basic data
- Range
- Lake Biwa and Yodo River system, Yura River system, Nobi Plain, Kino River system and Mikata Lakes
- Conservation status in Japan
- Critically Endangered (CR)Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020
Where the Striped Bitterling has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — イチモンジタナゴChecked: 2026-11-04
- 三重県総合博物館 — イチモンジタナゴ（Acheilognathus cyanostigma）Checked: 2026-11-07
- 大阪府立環境農林水産総合研究所 — イチモンジタナゴChecked: 2026-11-07
- Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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