Dave66
01-20-2008, 12:12 AM
The Amazon River system in South America is home to a dazzling variety of small, colorful, schooling fish known as Tetras. They are justly popular aquarium fish with their glittering colors and synchronized schooling behavior. However, few fish keepers keep them properly and in sympathetic surroundings that shows them at their best. In this post, I'll show you how to keep these beautiful little fish beautifully.
First, the origin of the common name; Tetra. When explorers brought back fish from the Amazon region in the teens, 20's and 30's, science lumped them all, big and small, into the Genus Tetragonopterus based on the number and shape of their teeth; which all Tetras have, from little Neon Tetras to the fearsome Piranha. That Genus is now almost totally vacated, and applies to only two fish I know of; T. argentus and T. chalceus, both ovoid, silvery Tetras.
The vast majority of Tetras available in the hobby do best in moderately soft, pH 6.8 water at 75 to 78 degrees, though nearly all are adaptable to a point. They are rarely as colorful in hard water and at high pH, and are more prone to disease in such conditions. What they like are well-planted tanks with driftwood and stones. They don't like very bright tanks, so floating plants should be provided over the main viewing area so the light is filtered. I primarily use Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) for this purpose, though any floating species would do. Tetras look most attractive and colorful swimming through the shadows and light. Dark-colored substrates intensifies their colors.
Tetras are all long-lived, especially for little fish. You should expect at least five years with your charges, though with some species, you could enjoy them for more than 10 years.
One item that many overlook is that Tetras are very much schooling fish, thus for their continued health, one is obligated to keep them so. How many? In a well planted, established and filtered 20 gallon, 48 neon-sized Tetras easily. In a larger tank, say a 75 for example, it's not at all difficult to keep 10 dozen.
Why? Because the neon-sized Tetras impinge so very little on water quality.
Feeding is another matter. Tetras have teeth, meaning their diet should contain meaty items primarily, with vegetative foods a smaller percentage. ALL of them do better and are more active, colorful and vivacious if fed live foods two or three times a week. Daphnia pulex is a favorite, though they do like wingless Dropsilia species fruit flies. The small Tetras can choke on things like white worms, so they should be cut into halves or thirds before feeding. A good pelleted food should be the staple, with vegetative foods, like Spirolina flakes, a couple times a week. Live food (if available and clean) as a substitute for a meal two or three times a week.
Feeding should be small meals given often, rather than one large meal a day, as Tetras are nibblers, not gorgers. As they are fast eaters, no more than they can finish in a minute three to five times a day.
So, give them the sympathetic surrounding of a soft, slightly acid well planted tank coupled with a good diet, and your Tetra tank will be the envy of all who view it.
Now some species
A little fish dropped a nuclear bomb on the aquarium world in 1933. Now ubiquitous when the word Tetra is used, Paracheriodon innesi, the Neon Tetra, leads off our list.
A diminutive one and a quarter inches, its almost surreal colors were hard to believe when it debuted. A brilliant, electric-blue band runs from the nose to tail dividing an olive back and a bright white stomach accented by a blood-red mark on its posterior half. As a large school in a properly set up planted tank, the Neon Tetra has few equals.
Neon tetras are as beautiful as they are difficult to breed. Hailing from the dark, tea colored waters of the Amazon basin, their eggs will dissolve when exposed to light. A 15 to 20 gallon tank filled with water dosed with a commercial black water extract and mild filtration, furnished with dead leaves on the bottom, driftwood and small, rounded stones should be the setup for breeding. When I bred these fish, I painted the outside of the tank with black acrylic save for a small window low in front, covered with cardboard. A blanket topped the tank. One must use real ingenuity in breeding this family of fishes, but of all of them, Neons and their close cousins Cardinals (P. axelrodi) are perhaps the most challenging.
My personal favorite of the family is the Flag Tetra, Hyphessobrycon heterorhabdus.
Seen in a bare pet store tank they are less than impressive, but given proper surroundings and some time to settle in, they are one of the most attractive glittering gems of the smaller Tetras. No book or internet photo can do this little fish justice.
A dark background and substrate, floating plants in a well planted aquarium will reward the keeper with a 1 3/4 inch showpiece. A brilliant band of red, gold and black culminates in a fiery red upper eye. A silvery tummy and an light olive back have a translucent quality which is difficult to describe. When caught in the right light, a little white hook is visible on the tip of the anal fin and white tail tips of the males. The females lack the white marks, and are just a hair bulkier and perhaps not quite as translucent as the males. The fish are egg scatterers that prefer to breed over fine-leaved plants. The parents are very good at eating them as they fall, so the keeper must intervene and remove the breeders promptly when breeding is complete. To distract them from the eggs until you can remove the parents, its a good idea to introduce several Daphnia to the tank while the fish are breeding.
Their colors are truly stellar when fed Daphnia and Dropsilia a few times a week.
Appearing to be carrying a neon-red light from within, the Glowlight Tetra, Hemmigrammus erthrozonus is a great schooler for the new Tetra keeper. An electric-red line at the middle of the fish terminates in a red upper eye. In mature fish, the dorsal fin can have the same red on the first few rays. The fish is partially translucent, save for the silvery sack containing the organs. Glowlights top out at 1 3/4 inches.
In a dark bottomed tank with a deep green or blue-black background, Glowlights winding through the plants en masse is a sight few will forget. Quite hardy when well cared for, Glowlights show best as the single Tetra species in the tank. Very free breeders over fine-leaved plants, Glowlights are a prime candidate for a first Tetra bred. Rather than the normal scatters, Glowlight pairs lock fins side by side and do a funky little barrel roll as the eggs and milt are expelled. This is repeated until there are roughly 100 eggs in the plants.
On to Part 2
First, the origin of the common name; Tetra. When explorers brought back fish from the Amazon region in the teens, 20's and 30's, science lumped them all, big and small, into the Genus Tetragonopterus based on the number and shape of their teeth; which all Tetras have, from little Neon Tetras to the fearsome Piranha. That Genus is now almost totally vacated, and applies to only two fish I know of; T. argentus and T. chalceus, both ovoid, silvery Tetras.
The vast majority of Tetras available in the hobby do best in moderately soft, pH 6.8 water at 75 to 78 degrees, though nearly all are adaptable to a point. They are rarely as colorful in hard water and at high pH, and are more prone to disease in such conditions. What they like are well-planted tanks with driftwood and stones. They don't like very bright tanks, so floating plants should be provided over the main viewing area so the light is filtered. I primarily use Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) for this purpose, though any floating species would do. Tetras look most attractive and colorful swimming through the shadows and light. Dark-colored substrates intensifies their colors.
Tetras are all long-lived, especially for little fish. You should expect at least five years with your charges, though with some species, you could enjoy them for more than 10 years.
One item that many overlook is that Tetras are very much schooling fish, thus for their continued health, one is obligated to keep them so. How many? In a well planted, established and filtered 20 gallon, 48 neon-sized Tetras easily. In a larger tank, say a 75 for example, it's not at all difficult to keep 10 dozen.
Why? Because the neon-sized Tetras impinge so very little on water quality.
Feeding is another matter. Tetras have teeth, meaning their diet should contain meaty items primarily, with vegetative foods a smaller percentage. ALL of them do better and are more active, colorful and vivacious if fed live foods two or three times a week. Daphnia pulex is a favorite, though they do like wingless Dropsilia species fruit flies. The small Tetras can choke on things like white worms, so they should be cut into halves or thirds before feeding. A good pelleted food should be the staple, with vegetative foods, like Spirolina flakes, a couple times a week. Live food (if available and clean) as a substitute for a meal two or three times a week.
Feeding should be small meals given often, rather than one large meal a day, as Tetras are nibblers, not gorgers. As they are fast eaters, no more than they can finish in a minute three to five times a day.
So, give them the sympathetic surrounding of a soft, slightly acid well planted tank coupled with a good diet, and your Tetra tank will be the envy of all who view it.
Now some species
A little fish dropped a nuclear bomb on the aquarium world in 1933. Now ubiquitous when the word Tetra is used, Paracheriodon innesi, the Neon Tetra, leads off our list.
A diminutive one and a quarter inches, its almost surreal colors were hard to believe when it debuted. A brilliant, electric-blue band runs from the nose to tail dividing an olive back and a bright white stomach accented by a blood-red mark on its posterior half. As a large school in a properly set up planted tank, the Neon Tetra has few equals.
Neon tetras are as beautiful as they are difficult to breed. Hailing from the dark, tea colored waters of the Amazon basin, their eggs will dissolve when exposed to light. A 15 to 20 gallon tank filled with water dosed with a commercial black water extract and mild filtration, furnished with dead leaves on the bottom, driftwood and small, rounded stones should be the setup for breeding. When I bred these fish, I painted the outside of the tank with black acrylic save for a small window low in front, covered with cardboard. A blanket topped the tank. One must use real ingenuity in breeding this family of fishes, but of all of them, Neons and their close cousins Cardinals (P. axelrodi) are perhaps the most challenging.
My personal favorite of the family is the Flag Tetra, Hyphessobrycon heterorhabdus.
Seen in a bare pet store tank they are less than impressive, but given proper surroundings and some time to settle in, they are one of the most attractive glittering gems of the smaller Tetras. No book or internet photo can do this little fish justice.
A dark background and substrate, floating plants in a well planted aquarium will reward the keeper with a 1 3/4 inch showpiece. A brilliant band of red, gold and black culminates in a fiery red upper eye. A silvery tummy and an light olive back have a translucent quality which is difficult to describe. When caught in the right light, a little white hook is visible on the tip of the anal fin and white tail tips of the males. The females lack the white marks, and are just a hair bulkier and perhaps not quite as translucent as the males. The fish are egg scatterers that prefer to breed over fine-leaved plants. The parents are very good at eating them as they fall, so the keeper must intervene and remove the breeders promptly when breeding is complete. To distract them from the eggs until you can remove the parents, its a good idea to introduce several Daphnia to the tank while the fish are breeding.
Their colors are truly stellar when fed Daphnia and Dropsilia a few times a week.
Appearing to be carrying a neon-red light from within, the Glowlight Tetra, Hemmigrammus erthrozonus is a great schooler for the new Tetra keeper. An electric-red line at the middle of the fish terminates in a red upper eye. In mature fish, the dorsal fin can have the same red on the first few rays. The fish is partially translucent, save for the silvery sack containing the organs. Glowlights top out at 1 3/4 inches.
In a dark bottomed tank with a deep green or blue-black background, Glowlights winding through the plants en masse is a sight few will forget. Quite hardy when well cared for, Glowlights show best as the single Tetra species in the tank. Very free breeders over fine-leaved plants, Glowlights are a prime candidate for a first Tetra bred. Rather than the normal scatters, Glowlight pairs lock fins side by side and do a funky little barrel roll as the eggs and milt are expelled. This is repeated until there are roughly 100 eggs in the plants.
On to Part 2