Black Neon Tetra

The scientific name of black neon tetra is Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi. It is a freshwater fish and is originally found in southern Brazil. It belongs to Characidae family. There is a misconception among many people that it is a black variation of the regular neon tetra fish. Though the fact is that both of them are from same tetra fish family but they are of different genus.

Special Features
Black neon tetra has a body that grows up to a length of 4-5 cm. The females can be identified with broader and rounded body. On the other hand, the males have a slender and slightly smaller body. It looks brilliant because of two adjacent longitudinal stripes of black and silver white color that run from the eye to the tail. The black stripe is thicker than the white one. The belly part of the fish is of silver color. The fins are colorless and look almost transparent. Its eyes are big and have a crimson red semi circle at the top.

Habitat
When you plan to keep black neon tetra in the aquarium, you have to provide them with a suitable environment so that they can feel comfortable. To create a habitat, you need a darkish tank whose capacity should be at least 20 liters or more. You should fill up the fish tank with soft water which is acidic in nature with a pH value in between 5.5 and 7.5. It has to be kept clean all the time. The temperature of the water should be in the range of 72 to 78 Fahrenheit. You have to put lots of live plants along the boundary line of the aquarium. There should be enough open water for them where they can swim freely. In one fish tank, keep 4-6 black neon tetra as they love to live in groups.

Feeding Habits
Basically, black neon tetra is omnivorous in nature and feed themselves on a wide variety of foods. In natural environment, they prefer small invertebrates like insects and their larvae and live plants. In aquarium, you can give them flake foods and freeze dried foods. Sometimes, feed them with some live foods such as brine shrimp, blackworm and frozen bloodworm. These foods should be given at least once in a week as such foods help them to maintain their attractive body colors. A typical feeding habit of this aquarium fish is that they eat all those foods that are available at the top and middle layer of the water and they will never eat anything lying at the bottom of the tank. So, you can keep some fish that live at the bottom of the tank (for example; pygmy corydoras) and eat up the foods left untouched by the fish.

Breeding
Black neon tetra starts breeding when they are nearly one year old. For proper breeding, you should feed them with plenty of good live foods. It is advisable that the male and the female pair of fish are provided a separate tank with right environment which is more or less similar to their natural habitat. For this reason, you have to ensure the water of the breeding tank is very soft and acidic and consists of enough plants in it. The aquarium should be placed in one such place where it receives soft light. The female fish lay several hundreds eggs together which get scattered all around. These eggs are quite sticky and cling to various surfaces inside the aquarium. Soon after breeding, you should take the large fish out of the aquarium. Otherwise, they will eat up the eggs and babies. The egg will be hatched within a week and the tiny fry will start swimming all over the place. Once their yolk sac is gone, you can start feeding them. You have to be very careful while feeding the fry. Give them fine foods only. Ideally the first food for the fry is infusoria. Or else, give them flakes that are in the form of tiny particles. As they grow, they can have some coarse food material. Live foods are the best options for fry too.

On an average, the black neon tetra's lifespan is around 5 years. With proper black care, they can live a few more years. To ensure a safe and secured environment for them, do not keep any large predatory fish with them and let them live their life peacefully.