[3][4] Identified in April 2007[5] from specimens shipped to the United Kingdom in a consignment of aquarium fishes, the dracula fish has so far only been found in the wild in a small stream at Sha Du Zup between Mogaung and Tanai in northern Myanmar.

Dracula fish lack scales and the upper body is dominated by the jaws on large males.

Much of the fish's structure is cartilaginous: it has 44 fewer bones than the zebrafish, and thus it is translucent and appears similar to larval forms.

It becomes sexually mature while its body is still not fully developed; scientists speculate that this may happen because younger fish were more successful reproductively.

[4] Ichthyologist Dr Ralf Britz, who named the fish after Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula, stated that the dracula fish "is one of the most extraordinary vertebrates discovered in the last few decades.