Photo: Thomnight ( Thomnight ), CC BY-SA 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons
January tetra
Hemigrammus hyanuary
4 cm
Adult size
80 L
Minimum volume
8
Minimum group
5 years
Lifespan
Water parameters
Understand these values- Genus
- Hemigrammus
- Diet
- omnivore
- Social life
- shoal
In the wild
Overview
Also called the “green neon” or “costello tetra”, this small tetra with a green sheen and a black tail spot is seen much less often in the trade than it used to be. It is sometimes confused with the head-and-tail-light tetra, of which it looks like a more elongated version.
- Scientific name
- Hemigrammus hyanuary Durbin, 1918
- Classification
- Characiformes › Acestrorhamphidae
- IUCN Red List
- Least concern (LC)
Natural habitat
Amazon basin, in Peru and Brazil; described from Lake Hyanuary, near Manaus
Observations (GBIF) and localities Native countries Rivers and lakes
It lives in slow rivers, tributaries and floodplain lakes.
Behaviour
Very peaceful, it copes poorly with boisterous or much larger companions. Ideally, keep it with other small South American fish (tetras, pencilfish, Apistogramma, Corydoras, small Loricariidae). Always buy a group. It mainly eats small invertebrates: dry food and small live or frozen prey.
Sources:FishBase Seriously Fish GBIF · Base map: Natural Earth