We have wanted to write about our experiences with different types of tetra we thought it would hopefully benefit some of you so let’s look at 5 of our favourite tetra fish types starting at our fish tanks beginning with our first tetra The Cardinal tetra!
hope you enjoy the read.
So you have been wanting a FISH tank for a while now but what fish to keep we decided on TETRAS here’s our tetras!
the tetra has a huge array of types all are suitable for beginners! WHICH IS GOOD AS WE ARE INDEED BEGINNERS. We eventually (after some deliberation) decided on cardinal tetras I think you would agree they are
beautiful. Just so you know when we say huge array HOW MANY TYPES OF TETRA ARE THERE?
THERE ARE 700 DIFFERENT TYPES OF TETRA amazing I know right which is why we had some deliberation in the first place as nearly all are nice fish but your tank is only so big!
cardinal tetra:
- LIFESPAN OF CARDINAL TETRA: Cardinal tetra can live for up to five years
- SIZE: up to 2 inches or 5 cm with females being slightly bigger than males.
- WATER TEMPERATURE PH LEVEL: water temperature 79-82 Fahrenheit 26-28 celsius PH level should be between 4.6-6.2 ideally
- bellow 6
- WHAT DO CARDINAL TETRA LOOK LIKE: cardinal tetra has a neon blue line running along their side and the bottom half of their
- body is bright red from nose to tail. often cardinal tetra is mistaken for neon tetra the difference being the red line on neon starts in the middle and goes through to the tail hence why the cardinal is sometimes known as the red neon tetra!
- DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE: The main difference is the size with females being bigger with more rounded bellies males slightly more slender the blue line should appear straighter on males this is probably due to females being wider across the middle.
- BREEDING: cardinal tetra are indeed egg layers, not livebearers they will lay eggs that tend to be on plants and or drop to the bottom of the
- tank. They lay between 60 and 130 eggs although not all will hatch once laid the eggs take only 24 hours to hatch the fry will look like little tiny bits of glass swimming in the tank. The water temperature and ph levels need to be perfect for cardinal tetra to breed if you do have eggs or you see a female looking big and more rounded keep an eye for eggs and remove the adults as they will eat eggs and babies, yes I know yuck.
- FEEDING: Cardinal Tetra will accept many small foods such as brine shrimp or daphnia, freeze-dried bloodworms and tubifex, micro pellet food, and high-quality flake food we feed our fish a micro pro granule.
Cardinal tetra are freshwater fish tropical in nature their scientific name or higher classification is PARACHEIRODON and their family name is CHARACIDAE
The Cardinal tetra has been known as the red neon tetra and was discovered in the Orinoco River and the Rio negro river running through the Amazon basin
The Orinoco River is one of the longest rivers running from Venezuela to Colombia and totalling 340000 square miles while the Rio negro river runs from Colombia through Venezuela ending in brazil.
Our cardinal tetra are in a 120-litre curved tank which is plenty big enough for 50-60 tetra yay! as shown above, water needs to be 26-28 degrees Celsius (we have found this to be slightly warm and keep ours at 25 c)
we have also found they do not do well with varying water temperatures find a good balance and keep the conditions the same and they will thrive! Also, the lighting is important cardinal tetra like more of a dim light so not so bright although our light seems pretty bright and they have been doing well so far. Cardinal tetra in their natural habitat have few flora plants shrubs etc but we’ve put a few in and again they seem fine it’s all about finding a good balance and sticking to it and the fish will be good (we think they probably hate change )We have been advised and have researched and found that the substrate should be dark we chose black with blue stones running through looks amazing check the pic lol.
Tetra fish are shoaling fish in that they stay together for social reasons but their also schooling fish in that they will team up and swim in the same coordinated direction we have however found them swimming on their own and in twos which implies to us anyways that they are happy and content in the tank their in. As with all tetra cardinal tetra are middlers they populate the middle of your tank swimming all over and generally looking pretty you also get top of tankers and of course bottom feeders we have a few plecos (awesome algae eaters) at the bottom of our tank.
Cardinal Tetra will accept many small foods such as brine shrimp or daphnia, freeze-dried bloodworms and tubifex, micro pellet food, and high-quality flake food we feed our fish a micro pro granule. we have only five cardinal tetra as we wanted a variety of different tetra in our tank they will school with other types of tetra and often do. But it amazes me how each type of tetra packs together! The rummy nose tetra sticks together like glue as soon as one rummy turns they all turn lol. On the other hand, cardinal tetra does tend to spend time apart and then school back up for a chat.
When putting cardinal tetra as with all types of tetra into your tank you should turn the tank light off this is to lessen any stress the fish may feel going into a new environment then place the bag of fish unopened on top of the tanks water and allow fifteen minutes to acclimatise then open the bag and mix half and half water. Half from your tank and a half from the bag tie bag back up and allow it to float for another fifteen minutes to fully acclimatise then open the bag and allow the new fish to enter their new tank when ready remembering to leave the light off for around an hour after empty bags been removed! This seems to be working for us so far.
LET’S LOOK AT RUMMY NOSE TETRA
LET’S START WITH A PIC HAY
Rummynose tetra has a torpedo-shaped body with bright reddish faces and a distinctively red eye the rummy nose has a silvery/grey body and an incredibly beautiful anal/tail fin which is jet black with bright white horizontal lines running down it. Rummies prefer a lower lighted tank with a darker substrate this will allow them to show off their amazing colours better as the happier the fish the brighter they seem to be on the other hand if stressed unhappy or unwell rummies will lose their colour and become dull even the red in the face could disappear. Rummy nose or red nose tetra as they are commonly known are freshwater tropical fish and also come from South America along with the cardinal tetra. The rummy nose tetra’s original habitat is some plants and flora the water is usually mineral deficient soft and with wood decay littered with leaves, the bottom of the river is also darker these types of rivers are called blackwater rivers!
SCIENTIFIC NAME: HEMIGRAMMUS RHODOSTOM
FAMILY NAME: CHARACIDAE
- LIFESPAN: Rummy nose tetra live between 3-5 years have heard of 6 years but safe to say you have done well to keep one for 5 years.
- SEXING: Rummy noses are notoriously very hard to sex even for experts but males are usually more slender with females wider and more rounded!
- SIZE: Rummies are between 1.5-2 inches around 4-5 cm in size.
- FEEDING: Any good live or frozen foods like daphnia, brine, shrimp, blood worm and or flaked or granules.
- WATER TEMP-PH LEVELS: Water temperature between 24-31c 75-87f PH levels of between 5.6-7 6 being ideal.
- BREEDING: Rummy nose tetra are egg layers it takes between 72-96 hours for eggs to hatch and then the fry take a further 24-48 hours to eat the yolk then they should become free-swimming!
Rummy noses are very difficult for breeding the water conditions need to be perfect and if you do see eggs best to remove all adults as with most tetra and fish, in general, it seems they seem partial to eating fry! Fun fact did you know there are three different types of rummy nose tetra? It didn’t turns out we were lucky and got all the same type of rummy we have RHODOSTOMUS otherwise known as the true rummy nose tetra but what are the three species of rummy and what are the differences between them?
Rhodostomus or true rummy which is almost identical to Hemigrammus bleheri (Also known as The Brilliant Rummy Nose Tetra or The Common Rummy Nose Tetra) and then there’s Petitella georgiae (The False Rummy Nose Tetra) Seems there are three differences between the fish first the brilliant rummy has more red appearing to not only cover its head but also some of its body too! secondly, the true rummy nose is slightly smaller than the others and thirdly the colour is slightly lighter on the false rummy nose than the others, All three are nice fish and all will swim together but might be worth noting that if you have rummies and you think they are not happy because of their colour maybe you have false rummies the colour might not be quite as great but still beautiful. Rummy nose tetra can be hard to keep for beginners but we have found them really easy maybe because we are mainly keeping tetra in our tank and the conditions are similar for most tetra rummies are all middle to lower tank swimmers we find ours more to the bottom of the tank.
And if you keep the substrate dark enough and have a lower-powered light the colours on their face and tails, in particular, will be amazing!
BLACK NEON TETRA:
Black neon tetra or just black tetra as they are commonly known are of course freshwater tropical fish same as the others mentioned here they are also blackwater fish found in you guessed it south America, Within the Paraguay basin in western and southern brazil, They come from the same habitat as cardinal and rummy tetra again blackwater rivers they happen to be more hardy and able to survive in harsher waters black tetra are peaceful community fish that swim more towards the top of your tank. What’s more, they don’t unlike the other tetra we’ve spoken about feed from the bottom of the tank they prefer to catch their food on the fly always on the go.
SCIENTIFIC NAME: HYPHESSOBRYCON HERBERTAXELRODI
FAMILY NAME: CHARACIDAE
- LIFESPAN: black neon tetra live for between 3-5 years but can live up to 10 years in aquariums
- SEXING: females are slightly bigger and have a bigger more rounded belly than males when mature developed characin hook on the bottom of the tail fin
- SIZE: Black neon tetra are between 1-1.5 inches around 3-4 cm in size.
- FEEDING: Any good live or frozen foods like daphnia, brine, shrimp blood worm and or flaked or granules.
- WATER TEMP-PH LEVELS: between 20-26c and 68-79f with ph levels being 5-7 water hardness between 1-2
- BREEDING: Black neon tetra are egg scatterers and will lay eggs all over plants etc as their eggs are sticky black tetra lay between 100-200 eggs which take 48 hours to hatch after hatching they take a further 4 days before fully feeding and swimming.
Black neon tetra fun fact: their baby fry when hatched are grey and take around two weeks to develop their colours, Eye colour Will also change after five weeks now it will start to look more like an adult black neon tetra.
So what does a Black neon tetra look like anyway? They have a silvery body with a bright white line across the middle and a thicker jet black line just under the white line running across the bottom half of its body. they also have an orange mark above the eyes and the eyes themselves are black if that wasn’t striking enough they also have two white marks at the base of the tail fin. As you can see from our pics although we need to get some much better quality pictures to really show them off.
Next up NEON TETRA:
Neon tetra are the most readerly available and most common tetra supposedly, Definitely popular we will be putting these into our tank in the next few days
LEMON TETRA
Let us lastly look at a fish we really want but will start a new tank as this one is pretty much fully stocked! Lemon tetra are still blackwater from the same region as the other tetra talked about here they like clean shallow slow-moving water filled with a wide array of plants leaves and driftwood.
SCIENTIFIC NAME: HYPHESSOBRYCON PULCHRIPINNIS
FAMILY NAME: CHARACIDAE
LIFESPAN: Lemon tetra live between 4-8 years with 6 years being average
SIZE: Lemon tetra are 1-2 inches around 4-5cm 2 inches 5cm being on the big side.
WATER TEMP AND PH LEVEL: Lemon tetra like water temp of between 22-28c or 72-82f with a ph level of between 5.5-7.5 Water should be quite soft no more than 20 degrees DH.
SEXING: Male’s anal fin has a pronounced black edge with slightly brighter colouring, Females are bigger around the middle same as all egg-laying fish as when mature/ripe they will be carrying eggs!
FEEDING: Any good food same as above daphnia brine shrimp blood worm or flaked or granules. Lemon tetra are mid-level feeders and do not feed on the bottom of the tank.
BREEDING: Lemon tetra is Egg scatterers the eggs are however non-adhesive and not sticky Eggs take 72 hours after being laid to hatch, The fry take a further 24-48 hours to eat the yolk and sac and be free.
Lemon tetra’s thin and fairly tall in appearance with a translucent torpedo-shaped body and they have a yellow tinge to them with a bright yellow/orange line across the middle of their body. The lemon’s dorsal/tail fins are edged in black and above their eyes are red. Fry lemon tetra after eating their way out of the egg will be free swimming they will be transparent in colour apart from the eyes! It can take four to six weeks for the body to take shape and for fin development to start to take place and a further four weeks for the colours to start showing and for them to start looking like their parents. It will take twelve weeks for lemon tetra to look like an adult and be fully developed.
Lemon tetra like to shoal in larger groups in the wild and for best results should be kept in groups of at least twelve fish. Lemon tetra is fine in evenly mixed groups of males and females, Lemons are transparent and colourless looking if unhappy stressed or ill but with a few tweaks to your aquarium can look amazing! Brink out the colours in these loverly fish first we need dark substrate to emulate their natural habitat of dark leaves plants flora etc, Then leave room for open swimming and slow-moving current as they are shoaling fish next make sure you have at least twelve and a big enough tank to home them all. The water should be soft/medium with a hardness of between 3-20 DGH, Ph level of between 5.5-8 we suggest 6.5 as optimal the lighting needs to be dull try to keep it as low as possible and keep with some cardinal and or neon tetra and the colours will show even more (apparently).
LEMON TETRA FUN FACT:
Lemon tetra males when they reach that age will perform displays with other rival males in what can only be described as “a dance-off” or “jousting” if you will the fish position themselves heads slightly raised fins unpaired and held erect making themselves as big as possible they then swim at each other making darting movements pulling away at the last second like “a game of chicken really” no damage is ever done its all for show- for social status and to impress watching females of course! Two fish of equal status will “dance-off” for a good 30 minutes!
FACT TWO:
Once females are ripe males will court them after chasing her about for a bit usually within some leaves and or flora he will gesture to her YEP “DANCE-OFF” TIME he quivers head down flicking his unpaired fins generating flashes of bright yellow colours once she is ready they position themselves side by side the release of both egg and sperm is signalled by both quivering together followed by an explosive parting and a cloud of falling eggs! Job done the eggs are left to fend for themselves.
In conclusion, we’ve enjoyed researching and sharing our experiences of some of our tetra let us know in the comments what tetra you like best and or what tetra we should get for our next tank although there are over 700 types of tetra to choose from and they all seem awesome to us so we’re gonna need a good few tanks and some space to put them all thanks for reading happy tetraing!!