it is called Paedocypris progenetica, and is found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, in order for it to be so small it has made numerous adaptions to its body, for example it has virtually no skull, the females have only 3 or 4 eggs,
another adaption of this miniature fish is to ensure once a female intends to mate the male has adapted pelvic claspers which he uses to attach himself to the females to ensure fertilisation, a energy saving device as I would guess that reserves of energy is expediently much smaller as any fish/animals size goes down, my theory so I could be wrong!
a ship in a bottle? well not quite but a fish in a bottle, unfortunately due to various reasons, such as logging the future of this colony is in some doubt, the fish measure a definitive 7.9mm, another strange fact is that the p.h. of this water is extremely acidic with a p.h. of only 3.0, the p.h. scale runs thus p.h. 1.0, the most acid of all acids, p.h. 7.0 not acid or alkaline but neutral, p.h. 14 the most alkaline of all alkaloids,
there is a claim that there is a smaller fish, the deep sea parasitic Photocorynus spiniceps, it is an angler fish, two males were examined, one 6.2mm and the other 6.5mm long, both were sexually mature and it was assumed they were fully grown, but there is a problem with this claim as whilst the males are smaller the females are considerably larger, being a deep sea fish where it is permanently dark they have evolved a strategy in reproduction, in that when a male meets a female he is "absorbed" into the females back, in so dark an environment the chances of meeting are so small the female keeps the male for life, some females have been found with up to 3 males attached to her, I guess if one male dies she can use the sperm from another surviving male, so Photocorynus spiniceps may have the smallest individuals but Paedocypris progenetica is the smallest species.
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