Which Tetra Is This Please?

[slbell]

Thanks for the help which now makes me believe its a Hemigrammus hyanuary (January tetra). In my aquarium it appears to have a blue/silver/green/orange lateral line! All depends which way the light is reflecting off the scales. Nice fish and seems to have more colour than most of the washed out pictures I have seen on the web of the same fish

Thanks all for the identification.

 

[Lateral Line]

The "highlight" lines on fish, Neons for example, are not made from regualr pigment cells. Rather they are iridophore cells which contain layered guanine crystals which refelct and refract light in the same way as a prism or raindrops do when creating a rainbow. It is for this reason the viewing angle is so important to the perceived colour.

 

[Truck]

i think its just a black neon. looks like one to me. but the other day i saw an albino colouration that looked like this. but we need a better pic. from the front?

 

[Jallen]

It looks sort of like a blackline rasbora...
Scratch that, no red on the tail...
Gold line rasbora?

Just saw the new images, and there is no doubt that that is a black neon tetra.

 

[Lateral Line]

If you look at the later set of pictures, picture 3 for example, you can clearly see the fish has an adipose fin. Since no Cyprinids have such a fin, it cannot be any species of Rasbora. The scale pattern is also wrong.

Black Neons have a red highlight above the eye, it is quite obvious, and whilst the pictures are not the greatest, it would be clearly visible in at least some. The black line is broad and goes the length of the body. Neither do they have a light marking beneath the black line in the caudal peduncle. It is not a Black Neon.

 

[slbell]

The "highlight" lines on fish, Neons for example, are not made from regular pigment cells. Rather they are iridophore cells which contain layered guanine crystals which reflect and refract light in the same way as a prism or raindrops do when creating a rainbow. It is for this reason the viewing angle is so important to the perceived colour.

Yes, the colour change depending on the angle of viewing seems more marked in this fish than my other tetras. Definitely Hemigrammus hyanuary. Are these quite unusual as never really seem them before? I can imagine the colouring being a bit subtle for some

 

[Lateral Line]

Are these quite unusual

and

colouring being a bit subtle for some

They are not something you see everyday. I've been keeping trops for over 40 years and I guess I see them once every 2-3 years, at the best fish shops, (those that stock for the enthusiast rather then bread-and-butter species). I wouldn't call them unusual, more "less commercial". Typical high street lfs get by on rotating a stock list of 30-40 species and don't feel the need to change it.

I assume from your spelling of colour that you are UK side. Places like Wholesale Tropicals on Bethnal Green Road are the kind of places to look for fish like that. Terry there often has unusual species, but instead of a rare great lump of a catfish in a tank on it's own waiting to rip it's next meal to shreds, he gets in tankfulls of small, "less commercial" barbs, tetras etc. It used to be my favourite shop when I was in England.

 

[grasshopper_green]

I have the same fish and I have been unable to figure out what they are.
They have a blue color in their eyes.
They are not flag tetras; some of the pics of January tetras online look like them, but some of the January tetra pics do not match.

 

[slbell]

Are these quite unusual

and

colouring being a bit subtle for some

I assume from your spelling of colour that you are UK side. Places like Wholesale Tropicals on Bethnal Green Road are the kind of places to look for fish like that. Terry there often has unusual species, but instead of a rare great lump of a catfish in a tank on it's own waiting to rip it's next meal to shreds, he gets in tankfulls of small, "less commercial" barbs, tetras etc. It used to be my favourite shop when I was in England.

I am looking for a tetra shoal to complement my current set up and wanted a deeper bodied tetra like the black widows or diamond tetra etc, any recommendations for peaceful types would be appreciated?

Thanks.

 

[fifefish]

to be honest that looks like a stressed neon tetra..

 

[grasshopper_green]

I am looking for a tetra shoal to complement my current set up and wanted a deeper bodied tetra like the black widows or diamond tetra etc, any recommendations for peaceful types would be appreciated?

Red phantom tetras fit the bill: "diamond shaped" and very peaceful. Mine get along perfectly with danios, rasboras, and rummynose tetras. Red phantoms look very similar to serpae tetras, but serpae are known fin-nippers.

to be honest that looks like a stressed neon tetra..

they're not neons - mine are very happy and healthy - maybe someday i'll get some clearer pics.

 

[Lateral Line]

to be honest that looks like a stressed neon tetra..

Neon tetras, even stressed, and man made mucked about with ones, don't have black markings in the caudal peduncle or light markings beneath their non-existant black ones. It is not a Neon Tetra.