Unknown tropical Fish - Please help

Hi all,

I have been keeping tropical fish for around 10 years now and come accross the fish, attached photo and have been unable to find a name for it anywhere. The shopkeeper was also unsure but I bought it anyways as I liked the look. Its around 3 inches in length.

Could anyone shed light into what this fish actually is or called? The shop owner assumed it was a barb.

Thanks all

Sorry cannot help with the ID. Take a better pic and crop it around the fish only. Then use google image search.

But why do you buy it in the first place? With 10 years of experience you should know better! Never buy a fish without information about it. Second, this is for sure a shoaling fish and will not be happy on its own.

Hemiodus gracilis

Good spot

Agree, Hemiodus gracilis. It is a shoaling fish so it needs a group. It gets largish, around 6 inches. More info here:
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/hemiodus-gracilis/

Thank you very much all.. I will be on the look out for more to keep them in a shoal. First time I have ever seen this fish must be a hard one to find.

Taran1984 said:

Thank you very much all.. I will be on the look out for more to keep them in a shoal. First time I have ever seen this fish must be a hard one to find.

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This species is definitely wild caught, not commercially raised. So when we see a lone fish in a tank of other fish, it is what is termed a bycatch. The collectors and exporters didn't cull it out from the collection of whatever species, and it ends up in a store somewhere. Over the years I have acquired a few fish like this, pencilfish (four N. digrammus in a tank of rummynose tetra), false neons (in shipments of cardinal tetra as they can be collected in the same area and look identical from above when collected), etc. Unfortunately, that means you may never see this species again, unless you can find an importer online or a local store that would be willing to acquire imported fish. Nothing we can do about this, just hope the fish doesn't have severe stress from being on its own.

Byron.

Are you sure it's that? It seems to have more of a red tinge. If it's just the lighting, what's to stop it from being a penguin tetra?

I've seen these at a fish store near me. Very cool. I was thinking about them, but then researched them and figured they were too big for my tank.

TekFish said:

Are you sure it's that? It seems to have more of a red tinge. If it's just the lighting, what's to stop it from being a penguin tetra?

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Here are photos of the three species in the genus Thayeria. T. obliqua is the true "Penguin Tetra" though less often seen as such because of confusion initially over T. boehlkei (the "False Penguin Tetra") which is more common in the hobby as the "Penguin Tetra," and T. ifati which is quite rare in the hobby. It will be seen that these tetras are chunkier than the longer more slender Hemodius gracilis which seems to be the fish in the post #1 photo.