Regional tanks… what can go in with Congo tetras

You'll find the gold and blue difficult. They react poorly to declines in water quality. Okay, react poorly means keel over. I kept mine alive for under a year, where the brichardis and caudalis went for years.
The good news is auriantacus often die in shipping, and those ones are healthy looking.
They come from a different habitat to the others. They're a blackwater creek fish, from feeders into the main river.
Your caudalis pictures above don't do them justice. They'll be nicer than the online shots.

If it’s a good sign, they ate really good, a few minutes ago… I’ll do my best to
keep up on the water conditions

@GaryE do you have a suggestion for the best temperature for this tank, knowing the variety of African Tetras I have

25c to 26c. You can go as low as 23.

Sorry if the following is what you already know, but hopefully others interested in these fish might find it useful.

The Congo is enormous and gets a lot of sun, so those fish like 26. I don't know about the auriantacus. The small streams we measured in Gabon, which would be like the creeks I believe they come from are shaded, and were about 23-24. This was right on the equator, with 26 degree days. It should be the same in Congo. We weren't that far away. My return flight was rerouted or I would have flown over the great river.

The info on them says they like shade, so you may want to try to adjust to them first. As far as I know, the others are main stream Congo from different points along its length.

There isn't a lot of species flow along the Congo in many areas, because the rapids are so violent small fish can't get through without being pulled into zero oxygen depths. So you have a stretch of fast moving river, gigantic rapids, then another stretch, another torrent and so on. Each can have different species - similar, but not quite the same. The big river ones have the same basic conditions - clean flowing water, high oxygen levels.

The tributary stream fish are often darker bodied, like brichardi (maybe?) or auriantacus, as silver scales in sun are good camo, but get you eaten in darker habitats. Darker is usually a bit cooler.

Your interuptus and caudalis are sunshine fish.

You'll get people who announce fish adjust to any aquarium, because they haven't ventured into keeping fish that don't. Actual research in killies shows a 2 degree difference in water temperature in the wild equips them with different digestive enzymes, so the fish that come from the deeper forest can't thrive if they swim into a sunny savannah region. I don't know if temperature dependent digestive enzymes affect tetras, as no one has done that research that I know of, but it kind of made me wonder.

That info came from climate research, which suggests a lot of fish are vulnerable to extinction because of their specialized digestive systems.

Thanks, for the temp recommendation that’s right where I’m at… everyone is eating good… I got the brine shrimp happy dance from everyone in that tank this morning

FYI... Yellowtails on sale...

Alestopetersius caudalis​

these are from a good dealer... ( but not who I ordered mine from )


the ones in my tank are all doing well, they are I think smaller that the ones this seller has... I have high hopes as they color up, but mine are currently the plainest of the African Tetras I have in my tank... but they are eating good, so I just have to be patient

This is a hard tank to take good pictures, but I took a few this morning… the water is dark, the fish are active… most went into the trash… but I saved a few

BTW, it’s near impossible to catch to colors the bigger blue brichardi are starting to get a blue sheen in the right lighting

Must have a female interuptus getting mature enough… 2 males are vying for her attention this morning…

Before I left Montreal, I was starting to see Alestopetersius caudalis juvies with standard Congos in stores, so I suspect they are being farm bred now. The price of Congos had tumbled as you didn't have to get wilds. There was a conspiracy theory among the oldtimers in the club saying the farm bred ones were sterile. I have seen something similar with other fish - wilds easy to breed, farm raised impossible. I don't think it's intentionally created as a situation, but it would be easy.

You will find, if you are patient, that the caudalis are stunning fish. The males are. If I could get a bunch I would leap at it. But I would QT for at least 3 months in case they're farm raised. That would be a worry. They can be plague bearers if they're farmed. Put them with wilds, and you can create a first contact epidemic, as the things the farmed fish have survived and carry can be alien to a wild fish, and deadly.

To anyone interested... those Brichari red / blues are back in stock from the dealer I ordered mine from... they a spendy... but the pictures of mature fish look awesome... if I had room, I'd certainly buy more...

hmm.. just noticed the Blue eye golds are back in stock as well... BTW... mine of both this species are eating well, & appear to be thriving

Nice. Good fish dealer.

Knock on wood, I haven’t lost one yet, even though they are a bit crowded

Several of the red/blue brichardi’s are starting to take on their “racy” form… they are starting to get a colored outline on some fins, and they didn’t come that way, but are starting to grow out the “rocket” on their tails ( the part that grows out from the middle of the tail )

Funny that on the interuptus that growing live edge is white… on the brichardi it’s dark… looks black right now… but that’s on the edges of the fins that are starting to grow out

A picture of the gold and blue just for fun