Today as we were doing a water change on one of our tanks (more on that as we go) we started thinking about the “Buenos Aires tetra” This beautiful incredibly colourful fish just came to mind! but why? I sense you asking why during a routine water change? Well funny you should ask let’s start with the water change and ill explain why the Buenos Aires Tetra came to mind.
While doing our water change which we tend to do weekly on all our tanks mainly because we tend to keep tetra and they can be considered (shall we say they have a heavy bioload) mainly because we stock our tanks to full capacity as Tetra need to be kept in good-sized groups!
Anywho water change we were in the middle of said water change we do a fifty per cent on this tank and some of our plants needed attention and we thought you know what we really need new plants as the tanks starting to look a bit sparse that’s what got us talking all things Buenos Aires Tetra fun fact: This fish loves munching on vegetation plants, flora, in fact, they will eat almost all plants with the exception of Java Fern! 
WHAT DOES THE BUENOS AIRES TETRA LOOK LIKE ANYWAY?
Well, this fish is exceptional with some amazing distinctive colours and markings let’s delve deeper and have look at well what this fish looks like?
The fish’s body is a shimmering silver but with tints of greens and sometimes towards the top of the body a more yellow in males (males as with all tetra have more colours) especially while attracting a mate.
The body colouring is silvery as said but, the back is brown and olive, dorsal, anal and abdominal fins are reddish or yellowish. The upper side of the fish’s iris is red. There is a dark diamond-shaped spot near the fishtail fin base.
Sometimes the tips of the fins seem to have a tint of green to them this fish looks amazing and is bigger than most tetra at three inches over 7cm in some cases! the fish has a cheeky personality and can be a bit of a fin nipper.
BEHAVIOUR AND HOW TO KEEP HAPPY!
The best way to help curb fin nipping and any bad behaviour is to make sure the tanks got plenty of room and same as all tetra that they are being kept in a decent-sized group of at least six but more if possible (as they are indeed shoaling fish) we would also suggest more females keep a good healthy balance and to stop some shall we say moody behaviour. 
Also, they as mentioned above will eat most if not all plants so having some good plants in the tank for them is only gonna improve their mood but also health and in turn, help bring out those amazing colours! also as a side note, they are hungry fish (dam right greedy wed say) so only feed them what they can easily finish in three minutes!
pro tip! As they are greedy and need to be in larger groups and no doubt if your anything like us you wants lots of different types of fish in your tank will do best on a fifty per cent water change at least bi-weekly although we would do weekly (just saying)(.)
OTHER THINGS OF NOTE:
This fish comes from South America and has been seen in Paraguay Uruguay Argentina and Brazil so quite widespread really!
Things to look out for the fish has an amazing multi-coloured line across its middle they can live for up to six years not bad for tetra but what we like about these fish that makes them stand out from the crowd (apart from their amazing colours is that they can jump and I mean they jump quite well so be careful.
The other nice feature about this bright fish is its ability to withstand any temperature from 60f right up to 80f around 15-27c (which is a pretty wide range I think we can agree) even though a tropical fish this shows it can survive outside of tropical conditions.
TANKMATES:
The Buenos Aires tetra does well with larger sized tetras, such as the black widow or Serpae tetra, as well as with barbs, danios, gouramis, and rainbowfish. Bottom-dwelling fish are also good companions. A school of Buenos Aires tetras is a good companion among non-aggressive cichlids. zebrafish, tiger barb, rosy barb are good choices.
MORE FUN FACTS:
The Buenos Aires Tetra has two other breeds there are an Albinotic (Albino) species of Buenos Aires tetra was also bred. It is more thermophilic and less aggressive. There are also fish species with long fins!
There a well-travelled fish as stated above they are found in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and they have been seen in lakes streams, rivers, and even ponds they seem to do well in most water conditions as long as vegetated with plenty of thick plant life. They don’t do well in dirty or muddy conditions though unlike a lot of south American Tetra (interesting)
Our two pence worth something we’ve noticed some are more yellow on top of the main body and some seem Blue is this a distinct allegiance to their teams blue for Argentina (possibly Uruguay) and of course Yellow for mighty Brazil haha!
BREEDING SEXING:
Sexing is fairly easy males will be more colourful overall and more slender when viewed from above females rounder fuller around the middle (especially when carrying eggs)
When breeding they will spawn within thickly planted areas this is more likely to happen in the early mornings! After spawning which can last a few hours (good job) she will lay or better still scatter up to some 2000 eggs (so on the higher end of eggs) for tetra fish! these eggs are adhesive and should stay in one main area sticking to plants flora etc
the eggs take only around 24 hours to hatch and the fry take around four days to eat the egg sac before finally becoming free-swimming fry. – Side note as with all tetra they don’t do parenting and will in fact munch on as many eggs as they can if left to their own devices so if intentionally breeding best to first have a spawning grid place a piece
of mesh over the planted area where the magic is to happen so the eggs fall through the gaps and the parents can’t get to them then after she’s finished laying you can safely remove the parents.
Pro tip: Use marbles at the bottom hopefully some eggs will fall through the gaps protecting the eggs until hatched giving ample time to remove the parents!
SCIENTIFIC NAMES – BRIEF FACTS GUIDE:
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Hyphessobrycon Anisitsi
FAMILY NAME: Characidae
LIFESPAN: Between five and six years
SIZE: Around three inches or seven centimetres
SEXING: Males have more colour and are more slender from above, Females plump around the middle
LOOKS: The body colouring is silvery as said but, the back is brown and olive, dorsal, anal and abdominal fins are reddish or yellowish. The upper side of the fish’s iris is red. There is a dark diamond-shaped spot near the fishtail fin base.
WATER CONDITIONS: Temperature Between 60- 80f around 15-27c ph levels of 6-8 and water hardness of between 2-30 dGH.
BREEDING: Egg layer/scatterer with no parental responsibility.
WHAT ELSE IN CLOSING:
These fish are some of the best around the colours alone make us want them but their personality and cheekiness will no doubt be the main reason you keep them! Be sure to keep a decent lid on the tank and be careful when feeding and doing water changes etc as these fish are super skilled jumpers and will try their luck as also mentioned
they like munching on plants but you could leave some Anubias or Java ferns they hate them lol. Or you could use fake plants but remember to feed them some vegetation (for a balanced diet) and to keep them happy (they will show
better colours) if you do. You can feed them dandelion leaves, spinach. If keeping in a planted tank keep them well-fed to minimise plant munching lots of hobbyists have kept Buenos Aries Tetra and plants together with no real issues.
We here at Tank0fish love Tetra and these fish are up there with being one of our favourites as always we hope you enjoyed the read and that you learned something along the way comment below any questions and or advice and remember to keep Tetraing the Tank0fish team!