Glowlight Tetra

Special offer 10 for £20.00
This discount will be applied automatically at checkout.

Glowlight Tetras (Hemigrammus erythrozonus) are a species of Tetra endemic to the Essequibo River in Guyana.

They have a striking iridescent orange stripe along the lateral line of their body, from head to tail. This is to help them find each other in the blackwater of their native habitat.

Habitat

In the wild, Glowlight Tetras are endemic to the Essequibo River in Guyana, South America. They inhabit acidic blackwater stretches of distributary streams that are connected to the main waterway. The water is stained dark with constantly falling leaf litter and bogwood.

They are a gregarious shoaling fish.

Male specimens of this species tend to be more slender than Females when reaching maturity, with the Females being rounder and more full bodied.

A comfortable temperature for these fish is between 24°C - 28°C.

Size

Our specimens currently measure approx. 2cm - 3cm

This species' maximum size typically reaches approx. 4cm

Aquarium

We recommend an aquarium with a minimum capacity of 60 Litres. The more fish you have, the more space they will require in which to thrive.

These are very peaceful fish that do well in a community aquarium with other fish of similar size and temperament. 

Glowlight Tetras thrive when in a group of at least 6 fish as they are a shoaling fish, and more members of the shoal make them feeler safer and behave with more confidence.

The aquarium should have plants, including floating plants for them to hide in. They also enjoy leaf litter and bog wood. This will better replicate their natural environment.

Almost all Glowlight Tetras in the aquarium trade today are captive bred, with wild caught specimens being rare. Because of this captive breeding they have developed into a much hardier fish than their wild cousins. Therefore the water conditions do not have to exactly match wild conditions and they can tolerate a much wider variation in water chemistry. However, try not to stray too far into the extreme ends of their preferred environment.

Glowlight Tetras tend to look best in a properly aquascaped tank, where their shoaling behaviour and vibrant colours make a beautiful centre piece. Dimmer lighting making their iridescent orange streak stand out more prominently and a dark coloured substrate is beneficial to this effect.

The tank should be well established to avoid any surprise changes in water parameters that may upset or be otherwise detrimental to the fish.

Feed with small flake, granule, or small frozen meaty foods such as daphnia, cyclops, and mosquito larvae.

pH levels should fall between the 5 - 7.5 range.
Hardness should fall between 1 - 12 dGH

Behaviour

This peaceful fish gets along with most species of similar size. As with most tetras, they look more impressive the bigger their shoal is. They can be easily housed in a community tank so long as there is nothing too aggressive with them that can cause them to become skittish and stressed.

This is a freshwater species - Do not put them in a marine / saltwater aquarium.