Tetra fish

Tetra fish are also known as Black Tetra or “the widow”. They are a tall, flat species that have a round anal wing all the way along the lower side of their body. The back side of the fish is not covered in scales.

The female are usually bigger than the male measuring 5.5 cm. Their bodies are bright silver, with black shades that can also spread on to the back wing and the anal wing area. This area is usually black on the younger fishes and turns silver/grey when they reach maturity.

On the front they usually have 3 transversal stripes one of which crosses their eyes another at the point where the pectorals starts and the third where the back start.

They can multiply relatively easily, but the babies are difficult to breed. For that you will need a 12-15 l aquarium filled with older water (5-6 days) and you will also need a protection mesh on the bottom of the aquarium and some plant bushes such as Ceratpteris. Firstly you should introduce the female at nighttime and only in the morning should you introduce the males to the tank. Following this procedure you can introduce 2 females and 4 males.

It is easy to distinguish females from males as their abdominal zone is swollen and they are also bigger as size.

The females lay around 300-400 eggs. The optimum temperature is 25-26° C. After 3-4 days you will have small fish which will start swimming around. In the beginning they will feed themselves with micro worms and after 2 weeks you can start to feeding them normally.

They grow up very fast.

Some specialists call them “keiser tetra” or “imperial tetra”. They can be found in Columbia in Rio San Juan River.