Interesting Black Phantom Behavior

[itiwhetu]

I was a good boy and did a water change on my tank, usually the males perform after the water change, not tonight for some reason the females decided to flare at each other. I have seen them doing this before but not to this extent.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

"Not tonight Joseph"

 

[anewbie]

Can't answer your question; but those guys look like serpae tetra with ink poured on them.

 

[Rocky998]

Can't answer your question; but those guys look like serpae tetra with ink poured on them.

They do looking serpaes but they are different

 

[Colin_T]

Itiwhetu type fight

He's mine, reow
hiss hiss, back off butch, he's mine.
grrrr, hisss, he's mine
oh girl, you didn't just scratch my scales. it's on
stop pulling my tail
no, you let go of my dorsal fin

 

[Byron]

They are not Hyphessobrycon eques (Serpae or whatever common name). But the colouration is certainly not "textbook" for female Hyphessobrycon megalopterus (so-called Black Phantom).

Some time ago I posted a link to an article written by a student biologist in South America alleging that the Black Phantom does not exist in the wild, and the fish in the hobby are actually all selectively bred from the wild "red" form. I questioned the author and got no satisfactory answer, and there is no doubt whatsoever that he was unable to substantiate his claims, though he did not retract them even in the face of unquestionable evidence. We brought some very eminent ichthyologists into the conversation, and others provided references going back to the early years of the last century proving a black form does exist in the wild. Anyway, the point that can be taken is that colouration may not be standard, and to make it worse, all fish of this species will be commercially raised unless one is fortunate to deal with an exporter/importer. We don't know the genetic background of decades of tank-raised fish. This ap[plies to both species actually, but that is another story.

 

[itiwhetu]

This is typical of the males of the species. For as long as I can remember when the females are spawning that is the color they take on. When the conditions are not right then they are almost grey in color.

 

[Lynnzer]

Well they look the same as mine. Just love them as a species.
I had them in a tank with black substrate and a black painted rear panel and lots of Java Fern but they were almost invisible in it.
I changed over to a yellow sand substrate with a lit white panel at the rear. The panel has those led usb powered strips as in the video and the colours can be changed to suit. I prefer the light blue for this tank

This is the tank as set up now. There's always plenty of breeding behaviour from the fish, especially the Redfins but never producing fry as i guess they all get eaten.

I was somewhat

I was somewhat dismayed when i went into the fishroom as i found yet 2 more jumpers from out of my main tank. An Oto and a Galaxy Rasbora both dead on the floor. I can't undestand why. I think I'll need to trim down the wood sticking above tank level and get glass covers.
Main tank here.: