Super blue emperor tetras

[Magnum Man]

Interesting, they can change color at will?… I added a small school of them to my South American tank, kinda hoping they would be happy swimming with the other varieties of emperor’s in the tank… in the bags, they were a little lighter, but looked like my electric blue rams ( the Rams are currently pretty small ) but once in the tank, they pretty much immediately glommed onto the black emperor’s, and within a minute or two, they all turned black… I can tell them apart, as the super blues has a tan strip down their back, and don’t have the blue or green eyes of the black emperor’s

Anyone have any of the super blue’s yet??? I have no doubt, that they will go blue again, as there are some electric blue rams in the tank

 

[Mr Limpet]

Photos?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I have some purple emperor tetra, that's what they were labelled at the store, and how they look to me - but the tank and light aren't the best, so it can be hard to see, but the singular elderly black neon I have left that I inherited from dad's tank often schools with them and blends in pretty well.

 

[Essjay]

Just to be sure what we are talking about, when you say super blue emperors, do you mean Inpaicthys kerri or Nematobrycon palmeri?
I assume the black emperors are N. palmeri.

​

 

[GaryE]

It's really hard to keep up with the often subtle differences in linebred tetras, and the rebranding of fish with new, 'exciting' marketing names. Most of the time, I have no idea what the artificial morphs are. I have to look them up and check often dodgy online photos.

 

[Magnum Man]

actually this is my 2nd small group... both from 2 of the better on line sellers in the USA... this group was listed as Inpaicthys kerri... The 1st pair came, when I ordered 6 Nematobrycon palmeri, & they only had 2 of them, after already charging my card, I got a call, & since that was all I ordered, they tried to talk me into something else, so I ended up with 2 Blacks, & 2 Super Blues... I'll have to check the order for the exact species... but the 1st pair didn't come in blue either... but this 2nd group was blue in the bags, & went black after putting them in the tank, & grouping up with the pair of blacks that were in the tank...
I went back to the 1st seller ( a major Discus seller ) and they don't specifically list the species, but on the blacks the males have blue eyes, & the females have green...
"This strain of the Emperor tetras is nicest looking of them all. They have a black velvety body and white noses. The difference between male and female is that the males have blue eyes and the females green."
on the super blues from this seller... they are currently out of them, so they don't show them at all, & when I review the order, they didn't change it to show the substitutions...

this is one of the pictures from the seller of the 2nd group, ( there are pictures where they are fully blue, but this picture shows black as a second color, so hopefully they will color up... still black this morning, after one night )

 

[Mr Limpet]

Sound like you have black Nematobrycon palmeri and ”Super Blue” Inpaichtys kerri. My super blue males looked black with a blue sheen most of the time. Wild-type kerri are much more attractive IMHO.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I didn't know there were different species/sub-species, I just thought when people said blue or purple, it was a colour morph of the same fish, but that was just an assumption, so this is interesting!

I'll have to try to get some clear photos of my purple emperors and find out what species they really are! Get some clear photos and see what you guys think they are. Especially since I need to get more of them soon to bump their numbers up, and I want to be sure I'm getting the right species!

 

[Magnum Man]

I’m not very good with pictures in the 1st place, and these guys are small, and very active, so I haven’t gotten anything worth posting… they are starting to show some blue, similar to the picture I linked above

 

[GaryE]

So far, in years of peering into store tanks labelled as emperor tetras, I have seen N. palmeri and N. lacortei, as well as I. kerri once or twice. It's the old English names over latin ones, and how that can mix things up. There are also linebred morphs, because palmeri aren't hard to breed. There was one 25 years ago with a great big chunky blue flank. It fell out of the hobby because the wild form was so much prettier. I figure it was a linebred palmeri.

There's aren't any sub-species, but the naturally occurring species and a few commercial linebred morphs.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

So far, in years of peering into store tanks labelled as emperor tetras, I have seen N. palmeri and N. lacortei, as well as I. kerri once or twice. It's the old English names over latin ones, and how that can mix things up. There are also linebred morphs, because palmeri aren't hard to breed. There was one 25 years ago with a great big chunky blue flank. It fell out of the hobby because the wild form was so much prettier. I figure it was a linebred palmeri.

There's aren't any sub-species, but the naturally occurring species and a few commercial linebred morphs.

I definitely need to try and get some good photos of mine then, so I can find more of the same species to bump their school number up. I really shouldn't have bought them- an impulse buy when my bestie and I went to a fish store the day after dad's funeral, and I was being selfish because I wanted them, and hadn't been able to go to a fishstore for a while, and only bought six.

Bad, and I should have/do know better.

But the ancient tank they're in (and the room) is dark and hard to get good photos. Will have to try and get some decent shots when I catch them to move them, and tag you guys to help ID them, please!

 

[GaryE]

I honestly don't see a problem with six. More is better, sure, but as a baseline number, they will still live well at six. It's when you drop below that that there are issues for them.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I honestly don't see a problem with six. More is better, sure, but as a baseline number, they will still live well at six. It's when you drop below that that there are issues for them.

They shredded some male guppies tails... I haven't been able to sex them all (they're fast, and I'm new to this!) but some seem brightly coloured and flashy enough to be males.

Are they known to be nippy?
Only the long tailed male guppies have been nipped/shredded, other short tailed guppies and other fish are fine.
(I moved the long tailed males out of there when I spotted the problem, only happened after adding the purple emperor tetra).

I wondered if a larger group of the tetra, like 8-12, would prevent that, and at least would have been better and I prefer larger groups in general. But I also should probably have them in softer water than they currently are.

 

[Magnum Man]

they ( all the emperor varieties ) have been leaving my Angel fish alone, my Palmeri's ( I think the most "common" Emperor ) came with shredded anal fins ( they were the last 2 from the seller, so if there was a bunch in a small tank or ??? I have no idea how they were cared for before they came here, be they don't seem to be nippy in my tank...

 

[Essjay]

N. palmeri is easy to differentiate the sexes - males have blue irises in their eyes, females have green. I. kerri don't have these colours in their eyes.

I've seen both normal N. palmeri and the black man made colour morph sold as black emperors. But there's a black colour morph of I. kerri as well, and that's also sold as black emperors.
I'm not sure I've ever seen N. lacortei, but that's supposed have red eyes in males, green in females.