Taxonomy & naming
Laubuka khujairokensis was described by Arunkumar in 2000 from the Khujairok Stream, a tributary of the Yu River at Moreh, Manipur, India, near the Myanmar border. The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) is the authority for the currently valid name; the species has also appeared in the literature as Laubuca khujairokensis and Chela khujairokensis, reflecting the unsettled taxonomy of this group — the parenthetical author marks that the original genus combination has since been revised.
The genus Laubuka (sometimes spelled Laubuca) contains the glass barbs or chelas of South and Southeast Asia, small, laterally compressed, often translucent cyprinids that occupy a different ecological niche from the active, schooling stream danios, tending more toward the surface and mid-water of quieter reaches. The family Danionidae encompasses the broader danio and rasbora radiation across tropical Asia. Because the species is known from a single collection locality, taxonomic reassessment has been limited by the paucity of available material.
Morphology
Laubuka khujairokensis is a small, elongate and laterally compressed cyprinid with the characteristic Laubuka body plan: a somewhat translucent, silvery-flanked fish with a pointed snout and an upturned mouth suited to surface and mid-water feeding. Like other members of the genus it is slender and light-built, giving the impression of fragility that contributes to the common name "glass barb" applied to related species.
Detailed morphometric data for this species are sparse given its restricted range and limited collection history; published size data are not well-documented in accessible sources. The general build is consistent with other hill-stream Laubuka: a small fish adapted to flowing, clear water.
Habitat
The species is endemic to the Khujairok Stream, a small hill tributary of the Yu River at Moreh, on the Manipur–Myanmar border in north-eastern India. The Yu River drains into the Chindwin system in Myanmar, placing this species in the broader Irrawaddy drainage. The Khujairok Stream is a fast-flowing hill watercourse, and the wider Laubuka genus inhabits flowing streams and rivers across South and Southeast Asia, typically in clear, oxygen-rich water over rocky or gravelly substrate.
Based on the ecology of related species in the genus and the hill-stream context, water conditions in the Khujairok Stream are expected to be soft to moderately soft and slightly acidic to neutral, with temperatures reflecting the subtropical elevation of the Manipur hills — cooler in the dry season and warming somewhat in the monsoon months. The related L. laubuca and L. tenella from comparable hill-stream habitats in the region provide the nearest ecological analogues.
Feeding
No specific dietary studies have been published for Laubuka khujairokensis. Based on the feeding ecology of the genus and family, it is expected to be an omnivore and opportunistic micropredator in the manner typical of small danionids: taking small aquatic and terrestrial insects, insect larvae, microcrustaceans and other invertebrates from the surface and water column, supplemented by organic matter and algae.
The upturned mouth characteristic of the genus is consistent with surface and near-surface feeding, and the fast-flowing hill-stream habitat suggests a diet that includes drift invertebrates carried downstream by current. In captivity, if kept, related Laubuka species accept fine flake and frozen or live foods such as daphnia and brine shrimp.
Mating
No detailed reproductive observations have been published for Laubuka khujairokensis. As a member of the family Danionidae, it is expected to be an egg-scattering, non-guarding spawner in the manner typical of the group. In the wild, spawning in hill-stream danionids is often tied to the monsoon season when rising water temperatures and increased flow prompt fish to move into shallow, vegetated margins or over gravel.
Courtship follows the pattern common to the family: a driving male pursues a gravid female through the water column, pressing alongside her briefly as eggs and milt are released. There is no pair bond, no nest construction and no territory defence — spawning is a brief, repeated event, and the adults pay no attention to the eggs afterward.
Breeding
Laubuka khujairokensis scatters adhesive eggs over plants, moss or the substrate, and gives no parental care; adults will readily consume eggs given the opportunity. This is the universal mode among danionids. No captive breeding records for this species appear in the available literature, which is unsurprising given its restricted distribution and rarity in collections.
By analogy with related Laubuka and the broader danionid family, successful captive breeding would require well-conditioned adults, a separate spawning vessel with fine-leaved plants or a substrate mesh to protect eggs from the parents, and a small rise in temperature to simulate monsoon onset. Eggs would be expected to hatch within two to three days at appropriate temperatures, with fry requiring infusoria or similar fine first foods.
In the aquarium
Laubuka khujairokensis is essentially unknown in the aquarium trade and is not considered a hobbyist fish. Its single-locality endemic status, Vulnerable IUCN listing, and the near-absence of captive breeding records mean it is extremely unlikely to be encountered outside specialist research or conservation collections.
For hobbyists interested in the genus, the more widely available Laubuka laubuca (Indian glass barb) offers a similar body form and ecology. Any specimens that did enter the trade should be kept in a longer aquarium with gentle to moderate current, soft and slightly acidic water, and a shoal of conspecifics — the genus is active and social. A water temperature in the low-to-mid twenties Celsius suits the hill-stream origins of this species.
Conservation
Laubuka khujairokensis is assessed as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List, with the assessment citing the species' extreme restriction to a single small stream system — the Khujairok Stream, Manipur, India — as the primary driver of vulnerability. A species with such a narrow range faces an inherently high extinction risk: any local deterioration of water quality, habitat modification, siltation or hydrological change in this single tributary could eliminate the entire known population.
The Manipur–Myanmar border region has experienced pressures from agricultural land use, road construction and the general conversion of hill-stream catchments that threatens many narrowly endemic freshwater fishes across north-eastern India. The species has no known aquarium population that could serve as an insurance colony. Its conservation depends entirely on the integrity of the Khujairok Stream catchment and the broader Yu River drainage in which it sits.