Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi (Black Neon Tetra )
The Black Neon Tetra (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi) is another great fish for planted aquariums .The black neon tetra is an energetic little beauty with a pleasant personality. Put this fish among contrasting plants and a dark background and you will have a vibrant and beautiful aquarium.
The Black Neon Tetra has a yellow-green stripe that runs the length of the body with a black region under the yellow-green stripe. It looks really neat when you see a school of this fish darting about. Black neons grow to a little over 1-1.5 inches in length, but they are a schooling fish. This means you need to be prepared to take on at least half a dozen to keep them happy and plan your tank size accordingly. In the wild, black neons tend to live an average of 8 years. Aquarium life predicts a life span of 5 years, but with a healthy environment, they can live up to 10 years. The best indicator is going to be water quality, a varied diet from a healthy source, and a proper schooling community. The more you do for your black neons, the longer they’re going to hang around to delight your eye.Black neon tetras are also known as black tetras, neon tetras, and black neons.
Origin:
The black neon tetra is native to the Paraguay basin(Paraguay and Taquari River basins) of southern Brazil. In the wild, these fish prefer small tributaries, creeks, areas of flooded forest, and sandbanks. Their natural habitat is very acidic, and the water is stained a “tea-brown” from an excess of tannins released from the breakdown of leaf litter along the bottom substrate.
Tankmates:
Black neons are peaceful, and they do great in community aquariums. They get along well with other schooling fish their size – such as neon tetras and cardinal tetras (pictured above) – as well as most other small tetras.
As mentioned previously, they feed in the top part of the water column, so it’s a great idea to pair them with bottom-dwelling catfish – such as Corydoras or Otocinclus – to help with that food clean-up.
Other fish black neons get along well with include:
Rasboras
Danios
Gouramis
Pencil fish
Guppies
Peaceful dwarf cichlids
You want to avoid larger fish that might decide your black neons would make a nice snack.
Tank Set-Up:
True to their native habitat, black neons prefer soft, acidic water, but they are adaptable and will tolerate hard, neutral water better than other tetra species. Though they’re small, they should still be kept in at least a 20-gallon tank (remember – they’re schooling fish). These fish are natural jumpers, so make sure you have a cover to prevent escapes!
An ideal tank set-up should include the following:
•Subdued lighting
•Live plants such as Amazon sword (a native plant found in their home region)
•Open space for swimming
•Dark substrate (river sand, driftwood, twisted roots, etc.) to help bring out the black neons’ natural coloring
•Healthy water current in the middle of the tank (this is where they are most active)
•Dried leaves – Indian almond is a great choice – to help replicate their natural environment and help dim the water; these will need to be changed every 2 weeks
As long as their water is kept clean, black neons are easy to care for. At least 25-50% of their water needs to be replaced every other week (water amount depends on how stocked your tank is). A proper filtration system will keep your tank and fish healthy, and a water change system will remove ammonia, nitrates, and other wastes while maintaining a proper balance of salts and minerals.
Basic water conditions should fall within these levels:
Temperature: 73-81F (23-27C)
pH: 5.5-7.5
Hardness: up to 6 dGH
Diet:
In the wild, black neons are omnivores, feeding on small invertebrates, plants, crustaceans, filamentous algae, and fallen fruits. In aquariums, black neons are not picky, and they’ll eat pretty much anything they’re offered. However, the best feeding regimen should be varied to provide them with optimum health and color. An ideal diet should include:
Flake and/or frozen food
Live and frozen bloodworms
Daphnia
Mosquito larva
Brine shrimp
Black neons should be fed several times a day, but only an amount they can consume within 3 minutes or less. It’s also important to remember that they feed at the top of the water column; they aren’t bottom scavengers. So, if you don’t have any fish working at the bottom of the tank, make sure to remove any excess food leftover after feedings to keep the tank clean and your filter free of debris.
Gender Differences:
Sexual differences are not obvious in black neon tetras. Generally, the female has a larger, more rounded belly than the male. A female’s lower abdomen becomes filled with eggs when it is sexually mature.
Breeding the Black Neon Tetra
These fish are egg layers and freely spawn in schools or in pairs. For best results when breeding, select breeding pairs from healthy adults that are approximately one year old. Younger fish may spawn, but results are better with fully mature fish.
Condition the breeding pair (or breeding group) prior to spawning with live foods such as brine shrimp and mosquito larvae. Choose males that are the most colorful. A breeding group should include only one or two males with several females.
Keep breeders in a separate tank to produce the best number of fry. A 40L spawning tank is adequate. Use a dark substrate in the breeding tank. Lighting must be very dim; if the room is very bright, place cardboard on the sides of the tank to subdue the light.
Keeps the spawning tank at 22-25 C while conditioning the breeders. After a few days, slowly elevate the temperature to about 26-27 C. Maintain very soft acidic water (4 dGH or less).
Filter the water through aquarium-safe peat to encourage these fish to spawn. Fine-textured, live plants can be provided as a spawning medium, and floating plants will help to keep the tank dim. A layer of mesh can serve too, but make sure it is wide enough to let eggs pass through but small enough to keep the parents out.
Spawning generally occurs early in the day. The female will scatter several hundred sticky eggs onto the plants and/or substrate. After spawning, remove the breeders, or else the eggs and fry will almost certainly be eaten.
The eggs will hatch in approximately 22 to 26 hours, and the fry will appear three to four days later. Fry are relatively easy to raise and may be fed commercially prepared fry foods, freshly hatched brine shrimp, or finely crushed flake foods. Young fish should be kept isolated until they are too large to be eaten by the adults.
Common Diseases:
One of the most common diseases that can affect black neons is neon tetra disease. This nasty little infection is the result of the microsporidian, Pleistophora hyphessobryconis (a spore-producing parasite), and it can affect any fish, despite its name.
The parasite is transmitted through the ingestion of infected dead fish or infected live food. The parasite begins to “eat” through the fish from the inside out, beginning with the digestive system. Freshly hatched embryos burrow through the intestinal tract and form cysts in the muscle tissue. This causes the muscle embedded with the cysts to break down and die, turning pale, and eventually losing all color. When the cysts enter the water, they break open and release spores, infecting the entire tank. In fish with infected kidneys, cysts can also end up expelled through their waste.
Neon tetra disease can move through a tank quickly if you don’t recognize the signs and act fast to remove the infected fish.
Signs of the disease tend to progress in this order:
Restlessness, such as not schooling with the others, particularly at night (imagine having something burrow through your intestines – ouch!)
Loss of coloration: usually in one part of the body, eventually progressing across the entire body
Formation of lumps (this is a result of cyst formation and growth)
Difficulty swimming (remember, muscles are dying)
Curvature of the spine (this is seen in advanced cases)
Secondary infections (i.e., fin rot or bloating)
