Tetra Fish
The popular name "tetra" is given to many fish that look entirely unlike each other. Tetras are usually classified according to their color. Platinum, silver, and blue are just a few of the prefixes that are added to the equally unorthodox name "tetra."
From the Rio Taquary in Brazil comes Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi, the black neon tetra. There is a broad, velvety-black area on the lower half of the sides, topped by a glowing enamel-white stripe above it. The upper half of the eye is bright red.
Spawning this beautiful fish can be accomplished in the same manner as described fbr neons and it falls into just about the same area as far as difficulty is concerned, though now all black neons are tank-raised and almost no cardinals or neons arc tank-raised.
The Congo River in Africa gives us the gorgeous Congo tetra, Phenacogrammus interruptus. With the sun shining on its opalescent scales, this fish is really a sight to behold, reflecting shades of blue, green, gold, and purple. A peculiarity of this species is in the middle rays of the tail fin, which become longer than the rest of the tail and resemble feathery appendages, especially in the males.
This species is rather large in size and takes a big tank for spawning. Eggs are laid among the plants near the bottom at a temperature of 77° F. and take six days to hatch. Of course the parents should be removed as soon as spawning is finished. The fry are quite large and able to take newly hatched brine shrimp at once.
The black tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi), with its overly developed anal and dorsal fins, looks completely out of balance, with the majority of its mass being in the lower half of its body. The flame tetra (Hyphessobrycon flammeus), with its beautiful red color, has a different
type of anal and dorsal fins but is similar to those of another type, the yellow tetra (H. bifasciatus), except that those of the latter are pale yellow. The yellow tetra looks much like the dawn tetra (H. eos). The glow light tetra (Hemigrammus erythrozonus) appears to be more closely related to the neon tetra. It is a very colorful fish and easily bred.
