| Silver tetra | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Characiformes |
| Family: | Characidae |
| Genus: | Ctenobrycon |
| Species: | C. spilurus |
| Binomial name | |
| Ctenobrycon spilurus (Valenciennes, 1850) |
|
The Silver Tetra comes from French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela. It is native to the Orinoco River basin as well as coastal river basins of Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana.
Contents |
The Silver tetra is almost disc shaped. It is mainly silver in color , but there is a slight olive green cast to some of these fish.
The eyes are large. There is some black at the base of their tail fin. Some have a small dark spot near their gill covers. The dorsal fin is fairly short. There is a variable amount of red in the fins under the fish. This fish can reach 10 centimeters in length.
The Silver tetra is an omnivore in the wild eating plants as well as worms, insects and crustaceans. In the aquarium they will eat aquarium plants, especially if insufficient vegetable matter is included in their diet.
A large aquarium is needed for this large tetra. A ph of 6.5-7.5, hardness of up to 20 degrees of general hardness and a temperature of 20-26 degrees C is suitable.
The IUCN Red list has not evaluated threats to this spercies.
Fishbase: http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=10629
IUCN Red list: http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/search
http://www.fishy.ru/cgi-bin/pub/o3s_pub?c=view&id=165
Silver Tetra Fact Sheet: http://bettatrading.com.au/Silver-Tetra-Fact-Sheet.php