Brilliant tetra
| Brilliant tetra | ||||||||||||
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Diamond tetra ( Moenkhausia pittieri ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Moenkhausia pittieri | ||||||||||||
| Eigenmann , 1920 |
The brilliant tetra ( Moenkhausia pittieri ) belongs to the family of the real tetras (Characidae) and occurs in Lake Valencia in northern Venezuela . The species was named after Henri Pittier , a Swiss naturalist and biologist.
features
The brilliant tetra has a high-backed, laterally strongly flattened body and becomes six centimeters long. Females stay smaller. Older animals become increasingly high back, their dorsal fin, anal fin and pelvic fins elongate. They are then colored silver-gray and have a bluish-white sheen. Individual scales glow golden, silvery, greenish or copper-colored. The tips of the fins are white. The top of the iris is bright red.
- Fin formula : dorsal 11, anal 26-29.
- Scale formula : mLR 33–36.
Way of life
The brilliant tetra is a lively schooling fish. It feeds on free-swimming small crustaceans, insects and their larvae. Diamond tetra are oviparous and lay up to 400 eggs. The young fish hatch at a temperature of 25 to 28 ° C after 30 to 60 hours.
Systematics
The brilliant tetra belongs to the genus Moenkhausia and in the family of the real tetra (Characidae). The genus Moenkhausia is currently not assigned to any subfamily. It belongs to the Hemigrammus clade along with some other closely related genera .
Aquaristics
The brilliant tetra was first imported to Germany as an aquarium fish in 1933 and is offered relatively frequently in specialist aquarists' shops.
literature
- Hans A. Baensch , Rüdiger Riehl : Aquariums Atlas, Volume 1 . Mergus Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-88244-101-1 .
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
- Axel Zarske: Moenkhausia pittieri. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 656 f.
Web links
- Brillantsalmler on Fishbase.org (English)