Taxonomy & naming
Devario strigillifer was originally described by George Sprague Myers in 1924 under the combination Danio strigillifer. The species was later transferred to the genus Devario, a move that reflects the broader reorganisation of the danionin cyprinids throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, the primary authority for valid names) accepts the combination Devario strigillifer (Myers, 1924), with the parenthetical authority marking the change from the original genus. ITIS likewise records it as accepted under this combination.
Devario is a genus of larger danionin cyprinids, loosely grouped as the giant danios, that ranges across South and Southeast Asia from India and Sri Lanka through Myanmar and Indochina into southern China. The genus has been substantially revised in recent decades, with several species moved in from Danio and others described as new. D. strigillifer sits within this genus on the basis of its size, body form and geographic origin, though no published molecular phylogenetic placement for this species has been widely cited.
Morphology
Devario strigillifer reaches a maximum recorded length of 4 in standard length, placing it at the larger end of the Devario genus and squarely within the giant danio size range. The body is slender and elongate in the typical danionin fashion, laterally compressed, with a slightly upturned mouth suited to surface-level feeding.
The species is named for the pattern of blue and yellow lines on the flanks that break up into spots and streaks — a more fragmented, reticulated arrangement than the clean horizontal stripes of species such as Devario devario. This streak-and-spot pattern distinguishes it from many of its congeners. Beyond size and total length data, the published morphometric and meristic details for this species remain sparse in the freely accessible literature.
Habitat
Devario strigillifer is known from shallow, fast-running streams in Myitkyina District, the northernmost region of Myanmar, within the upper Irrawaddy drainage. These streams run through bamboo forest, with canopy providing approximately 50 percent shade cover over the water surface — a characteristic that keeps the water cooler and more oxygenated than the sluggish lowland channels inhabited by many other cyprinids.
This is a cool, high-oxygen hill-stream environment typical of upland Devario species: swift current, gravel or rocky substrate, and water chemistry that is likely soft to moderately hard and near-neutral to slightly alkaline based on comparable hill-stream systems in the region. No species-specific water chemistry measurements have been published for D. strigillifer, and the type locality is not precisely documented in the accessible literature.
Feeding
No published dietary study exists for Devario strigillifer. Based on the feeding ecology of other Devario species of similar size and habitat, it is almost certainly an opportunistic omnivore and micropredator. In fast-running hill streams, giant danios typically take small aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates — insect larvae, adult insects falling to the surface, small crustaceans and worms — supplemented with algae, plant fragments and organic detritus.
The upturned mouth characteristic of the genus positions these fishes as active surface and mid-water feeders, alert to movement above and around them. In an aquarium, a varied diet including live and frozen invertebrates alongside good-quality dried foods is the appropriate approach.
Mating
Like all danionin cyprinids studied to date, Devario strigillifer is an egg-scattering, non-guarding spawner with no nest construction and no parental investment beyond the act of spawning itself. Courtship in Devario follows the pattern typical of the group: a driving male pursues a gravid female through the water column and among vegetation or current breaks, pressing close to her as eggs and milt are released together.
No pair bond forms, and spawning is likely a brief, repeated event over the course of a morning or with changing water conditions. In a fast-running stream environment, eggs would be scattered over gravel, among submerged vegetation or across fine substrate. There is no evidence of any nest-building, bubble-nesting, mouthbrooding or egg-guarding in this or any other Devario species.
Breeding
Devario strigillifer has not been bred in captivity under documented conditions in the available literature. Based on the biology of closely related giant danios, the approach most likely to succeed would replicate its native hill-stream environment: a well-oxygenated tank with good water movement, cooler temperatures, a gravel or fine-pebble substrate, and clumps of fine-leaved plants or spawning mops over which eggs could be scattered.
As with other Devario species, adults would be expected to eat their own eggs after spawning. A conditioning period on live and frozen foods, followed by a water change with slightly cooler, fresh water to simulate the onset of flow variation in its native streams, may stimulate spawning. Eggs would be removed from the adults immediately and raised separately, hatching within two to three days at appropriate temperatures.
In the aquarium
Devario strigillifer is essentially absent from the international aquarium trade and is not known to be commercially available. It has not been described in the hobbyist literature in any meaningful detail. Its care requirements, as inferred from its habitat and its congeners, would mirror those of other giant danios from upland Myanmar streams: a spacious tank with strong filtration and current, cooler temperatures than standard tropical fish rooms, and water that is not too hard or acidic.
As a social, shoaling cyprinid, it would need to be kept in a group of at least six individuals to express natural behaviour. Should specimens ever become available, they would be best suited to a species tank or community with robust, active fishes of comparable size, and a diet of varied live, frozen and dried foods. Its rarity in the hobby means that any captive breeding would represent a genuine contribution to knowledge of the species.
Conservation
Devario strigillifer is assessed as Data Deficient (DD) on the IUCN Red List, a status assigned in January 2010 and reflecting the very limited information available on its distribution, population size and trends at the time of assessment. Endemic to Myitkyina District in northern Myanmar, it has a small known geographic footprint based on limited collection data.
Myitkyina District lies in a region that has experienced deforestation, agricultural expansion and infrastructure development in recent decades. The bamboo-forest hill streams that define its habitat are sensitive to catchment-level disturbance: sedimentation from deforestation, agricultural runoff and water extraction can fundamentally alter the fast-flowing, oxygen-rich conditions these fishes require. Without modern surveys to establish whether the species persists across a wider range than historical records indicate, the Data Deficient rating cannot be meaningfully upgraded, and the species may warrant precautionary attention.