At least two colour forms have been traded, one of which is more intensely-coloured and has been referred to as H. sweglesi ‘red’ or ‘rubra’. The bright red pigmentation is retained in long-term captive specimens, suggesting that it is not considered to be an artefact of diet, but we suspect it might reflect conditions at the collection locality with the reddest fish putatively inhabiting blackwater and plainer forms clearwater environments. Zarske (2014) found the two forms to be identical in terms of morphology an…

A beautiful species that's not often seen for sale in the hobby, and is usually a little more expensive than other tetras when available. This is mainly due to the wild caught nature of most specimens entering the trade. It can be a little delicate when initially imported, and is sensitive to deteriorating water conditions in general. As a result, it's not a good choice for the beginner, and should only be added to well-matured tanks.

As with the closely related Hemigrammus, the ta…

Endemic to the upper rio Negro basin in Amazonas state, northern Brazil, and Amazonas state, southern Venezuela. One specific locality is Igarapé Muiá (00°09’03″N 66°48’10″W).

Type locality is ‘Upper Rio Negro, eastern Amazonas, Brazil’, which is thought to refer to forest brooks crossing the “new army road”, north of São Gabriel da Cachoeira municipality.

This species can be told apart from congeners by its uniformly greyish colour pattern, deep body (fitting 2.1-2.4 times in standard length), large eye (3.2-4.0 times in head length), having the pectoral fins completely surrounded by the coracoid, and relatively long dorsal-fin spine (1.1-1.2 times in head length).

Despite the ubiquity of its name in aquarium literature, confusion surrounds its true identity. Given it’s the only member of the genus occurring on the island, fish from Trinidad do presumably represent C. aeneus (see our image), but the classification of those from other localities appears far from certain.

Today the species is accepted to occur throughout much of South America, and indeed similarly-patterned fish do occur across a large portion of the continent. Some of these, such as the gree…

This species was previously known as ‘Aequidens’ pulcher but has been considered s member of the genus Andinoacara since 2009.

This species is also referred to as ‘velvet cichlid’, ‘red oscar’, ‘tiger oscar’, or ‘marble cichlid’.

It is a popular aquarium fish although its adult size and typical life-span of 10-20 years must be taken into account before purchase. Numerous ornamental strains are now available, and while care is more-or-less identical for all of them a degree of additional care must be taken with the ‘long-finned’ variety which is a little less competitive than other forms.

L. taeniata is the largest-growing and second most widely-distributed member of the genus although it’s a rarely-seen in the aquarium trade.

It can be distinguished from all congeners since it uniquely possesses 5 lateral scale rows between the lateral line and dorsal-fin origin (vs. 4 or 6–8 in the remaining species).

Omnivorous and will accept most foods offered, with the stomach contents of wild specimens varying on a seasonal basis but mostly comprising insects and insect larvae (orders Trichoptera, Hemiptera, Homoptera) plus some terrestrial fruits and even scales of other fishes (Sánchez et al., 2003).

In the aquarium offer live Daphnia, Artemia, Moina, bloodowrm, etc., vegetable matter in the form of blanched spinach, lettuce, cucumber, fruit, algae wafers, etc., and good quality, sinking dried foods.

Abramites spp. are separated from other anostomids primarily on the basis of their relatively deeper bodies and presence of a prominent, post-pelvic median keel, a feature unique to the genus.

At time of writing A. eques is the only other species recognised and is native to the Río Magdalena drainage in western Colombia.

It can be distinguished by possession of 13-14 bra…