Common name/s: Black Neon Tetra

Scientific name: Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi

Family: Characidae

Origin: South America

Maximum size: 1.75" (4.5cm)

Care: Keep in groups of at least 6-8. They prefer slightly acidic water. They should be kept at 72-79f (22-26c).

Feeding: They will accept most available flake foods, but relish live meaty foods, such as tubifex or bloodworm.

Sexing and breeding: Although they have the same colouration as the males, females are fuller/plumper in the body. These fish are egg scatterers, and are very easy to breed. Good for the novice fish breeder.

Comments: These look very effective in large groups, and have a gold-to-faint-green band on their body that reflects beautifully in the right light.

This post has been edited by Lateral Line: Feb 11 2006, 09:09 PM

It seems that when you keep these fish in a school of 6-8 they are loners. They will stay separate and fight/chase each other to defend their space, which they rarely move from unless spooked or eating. However when I increased my school form 7 to 12 they suddenly became quite active and shoal randomly then break up then reform a shoal. Though they will sometimes remain in their spaces sometimes and be loners they seem less likely to fight or chase each other away from said space and more likely to follow each other. I also noted that when more were added they seemed likely to “explore” different levels of the tank when schooling. They would swim near the bottom, peck around at the bottom once ore twice, then swim up and to the other side fo the tank and such, thus, they where more active.

Here is a bad picture. I had just added ADA aqua soil so the water is cloudy.

Another post!

Okay so I have gotten my Black neons to start doing the mating dance. I am not sure if they actually lay eggs or anything but I will inform you of what parameters they dance at.

Ph: 6.2 - 6.0
Hardness no kit.. but it is probably very soft since I have ADA aqua soil which makes water very soft.
temp: 81

Here is a video of their mating dance. They tend to do it just as the sun is rising. I am not sure if this has anything to do with it but I have a window behind my tank and the light from the rising sun enters the tank and gives it that dawn look that slowly become a brighter until the lights finally kick on (this also makes the fish less panicked about sudden light changes) maybe the tetras like this?

anyway the video. as you can see it is not the "stressed tetra" dance but completely different. They chase each other around in groups of 2 or three. These are rapid chases through the plants and such, they become very maneuverable at this time and it looks like a big WW1 dog fight between a squad of biplanes! They twist around each other and shoot up and down and all over, zig-zag between plants and they pretty much try to touch their noses to the female’s bellies.

http://media.putfile.com/Black-Neon-Fish-Dance-