Activity in the South American Tetra tank last night…

Apparently my Raccoon Tetras ( Hyphessobrycon procyon ) are reaching maturity, as a pair had broken away from the pack, to slow dance… so apparently they are not group spawners, like most of the other schooling tetras??? At least there is no Cichlid style fighting going on… this tank is heavily shaded, so difficult to take good pictures… so I borrowed this picture of a colorful male from Dan’s, my school are just reaching maturity…



The root balls have gotten quite extensive, so it might be possible for some eggs, or wigglers to avoid predation… time will tell, as each species of fish continues towards maturity…

There are between 6 and 12 of each of these varieties, in this tank…
Pristella Tetras
Rummy Nose Tetras ( platinum)
Emperor Tetras ( Palmeri )
Raccoon Tetras
Cardinal Tetras

Any fry would have to avoid all the adult tetras, as well as a few Cory’s, an Angel, and a Silver Dollar, but there are 3 separate large, dense, root balls, any eggs or fry could survive in…

This is my most mature male, at 1st light, in a highly shaded tank… not much color at 1st light ( or after dancing all night??? ) but note the way extended dorsal filaments…. The jumbo Cardinals are my newest addition to this tank…

A lot of the high bodied tetras spawn in pairs. They tend to be more territorial/hierarchical. When these fish are all grown up, with their fins and colours, the courtship dances should be worth the price of admission.

I have some young procyon now too. So far, there's no colour, but I'll be patient. I refuse to call them raccoons as they haven't tipped over my garbage cans, flipped my compost, snarled at me or pooped on my stairs. There are no sewer rat tetras, grey squirrel (tree rat) tetras or weed rat tetras, so there should be no racoon tetras!

Okay, at a distance of more than 3 metres/3 yards, young raccoons are cute.

The camera gathers more light, than any the eye… but this is really a shaded tank, same full length LED lighting between these 3 tanks, but much more emergent growth, and resulting shade above the tank in the center…