Black phantom tetra - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The black phantom tetra (Hyphessobrycon megalopterus)
is a freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

of the characin
family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

(family Characidae

Characidae

The Characidae, characids or characins are a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish, belonging to the order Characiformes. The name "characins" is the historical one, but scientists today tend to prefer "characids" to reflect their status as a by and large monophyletic group at family...

) of
order

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

Characiformes

The Characiformes are an order of ray-finned fish, comprising the characins and their allies. Grouped in 18 recognized families, there are a few thousand different species, including the well-known piranha and tetras.-Taxonomy:...

. It is native to the
Paraguay

Paraguay River

The Paraguay River is a major river in south central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina...

, Guaporé

Guaporé River

Rio Guaporé is the name of a river in western Brazil along the Bolivian border. Its Bolivian name is Río Iténez.The river has its source in the Brazilian Mato Grosso circa 150 km northeast of Pontes e Lacerda. From this town on it flows in a westerly direction for about 120 km, where at...

, and
Mamore river basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

s in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

and Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

.

This fish is of roughly tetragonal shape, light grey in coloring, with a
black patch, surrounded by iridescent silver edging, posterior of the gills on
each side. The male

Male

Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...

's fins are black, as is the female

Female

Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...

's
dorsal fin

Dorsal fin

A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...

; the female's pelvic, anal, and
adipose fins are reddish in color. A long-finned variety, apparently
developed by captive breeders, is sometimes sold (the male has elongated dorsal and anal fins even in the wild form). The black phantom tetra
reaches a maximum overall length of approximately 4.5 cm (1.75 in).

The black phantom tetra's natural diet consist of small crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s, insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s, and worm

Worm

The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...

s.

H. megalopterus is one of the more popular tetra

Tetra

s sold in the aquarium

Aquarium

An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

trade. Megalomphodus megalopterus and Megalamphodus rogoaguae are obsolete synonyms for this species. While it is not particularly colorful, it makes up for this by its display behavior: the males are territorial and defend their space against their neighbors by presenting themselves in profile with the dorsal and anal fins fully extended, and the dark color intensified, making the edging of the body patch stand out prominently. Sometimes they exchange blows which can tear the fins, but this damage heals quickly. Unlike other tetra who prefer to live in large shoals

Shoaling and schooling

In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling , and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling . In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely...

, they will also do fine when kept in a group of 4 or 5 individuals, making them suitable for smaller aquaria. There should still be enough space for the males to stake territories and present themselves to best effort, however.

Gender

The male Black Phantom Tetras have longer fins than the females and when in breeding condition, the females become plumper, but the biggest difference is in their color. The males have almost no red, while the smaller fins of the female both on the top and underneath them are red. The adipose fin, on the top of the body behind the larger dorsal fin is much more noticeable in the females than the males, because in females it is red while in the males it is grey. The female's dorsal fin has a a more intense black than the male's. When the fish are in breeding condition, the colours of both sexes become more distinct, with the male showing its black fins more obviously.

Breeding

Condition the fish well before attempting the get them to spawn. If possible, live foods should be included in the conditioning period. Frozen foods like bloodworms are also a good conditioning food.

The Black Phantom Tetra is an egg scattering species. To stimulate breeding, lower the pH to about 5.5-6, and decrease the general hardness of the water the below 4 degrees. The breeding tank should have plants, both rooted and floating, and low light.

A female Black Phantom tetra will produce about 300 eggs. These fish will eat their own eggs and fry, so the parents are usually removed after spawning. Breeding the Black Phanton Tetra is described on the following websites:
http://www.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=blackphantomtetra
http://www.bettatrading.com.au/Black-Phantom-Tetra.php
http://www.bbayaquariums.com/select-action.cfm?ID=43

Raising the Fry

The babies will need infusoria (protozoa) at first. Commercial fry foods of suitable sizes can be used, but at all stages the young fish benefit from live food of the right size.

Gender

Breeding

Raising the Fry

See also