Among a large variety of aquarium fish, people prefer beautiful and unusual specimens. The rarest and most exotic species are mined in remote corners of the planet, where nature creates ideal conditions for their existence. Among them, a minor is a small fish, which belongs to the haracin family and lives in the reservoirs of Brazil (from Guyana to the Paraguay river).
Description
Minors live and breed in the southern regions of the Amazon basin (South America). Their length reaches 5 centimeters. The body is elongated in length, and compressed on the sides. The back of the fish is brownish-olive in color, the side has a rich red tint, a small black spot may be observed behind the gill cover. The dorsal fin has a black outline around the edges, the tip of which remains white. Other fins are painted in ruby red.
Females are much denser than males and have a less bright and saturated color. Aquarium fish minor has another name - red tetra. These are flocking and peaceful representatives of the underwater world who like to swim in the lower water layers.
Features
Minors have a playful character and prefer to relax in dense thickets. Fishes come into puberty by 8 months, but do not create pairs. But in a single copy, a minor fish can become aggressive. She begins to hunt for smaller representatives or enters into a fight with more calm fish.
The red tetra is unpretentious in food: minors are happy to take any kind of feed. They can be offered live bloodworms, artemia, daphnia, cyclops, dry gammarus. The diet can include dry dandelion leaves, lettuce, spinach and duckweed. The alternation of feed data is optimal.
Minor is an active fish, and therefore it requires a similar environment or fish that will be stress resistant to its mobility. You can choose barbs, rassbori, catfish, pecilia, labeo and iris.
Content
A flock of minors (5-6 individuals) can be kept in an aquarium with a length of 60 centimeters. It is better that live algae, thickets and floating plants are present in the container, which will create shady places. The red tetra likes to relax in them. But water accessories should not clutter up a free place for swimming.
An unpretentious minor fish, the content of which is limited by minimal comfort, prefers a weekly change of water (25% of the total). The temperature in the aquarium should not be lower than + 22ºC. There should be about 10 liters of water per fish . The water in the aquarium should be filtered.
For minors, it is better to choose a dark soil, which is recommended to be decorated with Thai ferns, Javanese moss and echinodorus.
Shy and sedentary fish can feel bad in the company of the red tetra. And all because the minors like to engage in brawls and nibble on the long fins of their neighbors.
In good conditions and with proper maintenance, the red tetra can live up to 6 years.
Breeding
In order for the minor fish to breed, it needs a spawning aquarium, the bottom of which occupies an area of 700 square centimeters. A separator grid, a small bush of small-leaved plants should be present in the tank. Water temperature must be at least + 30ºC. Aquarium lighting should be dimmed and the light itself diffused. For spawning, you can use fresh or peat water.
In the prepared aquarium in the evening put the selected pair. As a rule, spawning begins in the morning and ends at sunrise. Mating sometimes takes several days. During spawning, the couple can not be fed. Only after mating, the fish can be given a small handful of small bloodworms.
The female minor tosses about 250 small eggs with a grayish color. They sink to the bottom and settle in the thickets of plants. After spawning is completed, the separator grid and plants from which eggs are shaken off previously are removed from the aquarium. After that, the aquarium tank is darkened so that direct rays of light do not fall there.
Eggs are extremely sensitive to touch, so they should not be touched. The incubation period lasts about 30 hours. After 4-5 days, the fry should swim. After that, the aquarium can include lighting and aeration.
Varieties
Minor - a fish, a photo of which is presented in various sources about the underwater world, can become unrecognizable. The fact is that minors can easily mate with similar species of fish. The result is unusual specimens, the appearance of which can only be determined by an experienced aquarist. Some lovers get veil and albino forms in aquariums.
Minors have the following varieties:
- Hyphessobrycon serape.
- Hyphessobrycon haraldschultzi.
- Hyphessobrycon minor.
They differ in the size of the black spot and the height of the body itself.
The red tetra is a real decoration of the aquarium. The playful nature of the fish, their exotic color pleasing to the eye and uplifting.