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| CHARACIFORMES: CHARACIDAE |
| Welcome to the characins section! I'm a Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi), one of the most popular species of characin available today. As a family, we are really very diverse in both size and habits. Keep reading to know and love my family! |
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| Most characins hail from the America's. Only a few are found in North America- most of us like to keep house where the climate is stable and the waters are warm! There are a lot of us- from the huge a vicious Red-belly piranha to little ole' me- if I'm lucky, I'll make 1 and a half inches before I die! |
| It's a fish eat fish world out there. Since many of us characins are small, we tend to get a lot of bigger fish hanging around that would like to make a meal out of us! To avoid predators such as cichlids and larger characins, we tend to keep in schools or shoals, which are just big groups of us. The predators are kind of slow, so by staying in groups, it is hard for them to pick out just one of us to eat, and that makes it safer! |
| Not only are we a big family, but we are one of the most colorful too! Characins come in practically every color of the rainbow- red, blue, green, yellow and all sorts of mixes of those. Our colors serve to attract the ladies- who could resist a stunning guy like me? We also use our colors to display to other males. The biggest, baddest males often have the nicest colors. As we come into breeding condition, our colors will intensify. |
| Bleeding Heart Tetra (Hyphessobrycon socolofi) |
| Pristella Tetra (Pristella maxilaris) |
| Red-bellied Pacu (Piaractus brachypomus) |
| Keeping tetras in the home aquarium can be very easy or very hard. Tank raised specimens are usually very hardy and adaptable. Wild caught species, on the other hand, tend to be very specific in their water qualities. Many are from the Amazon River basin and prefer very soft, peat filtered water. |
| FISH FACT: A large shoal of piranha (Pygocentrus or Serrasalmus sp.) can strip the flesh from an unlucky animal in a matter of minutes. |
| Cardinal Tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi) |
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