Can you help identify a fish

[Geovoxic]

I am somewhat of a newbie when it comes to tropical fish and would appreciate some assistance with identifying a certain fish species.

I had started two weeks ago a 30 gallon tank with live plants, driftwood and so forth. I have since added 5 ghost shrimp, 1 fancy guppy, 4 plain guppies and 5 fish that I am having trouble identifying.

When I purchased the unidentified fish in a small fish store in China Town here in Toronto I was told that they were cherry barbs but they look nothing like the photos I find on the internet.

The closest they come to image wise is either a tiger barb or a serpae tetra. They have a habit of dancing around one another and displaying their top fins spread wide, they chase one another and when they feed they go into what I would call a frenzy. I am hoping someone can help me pin down what species they are. Thanks.

These are the best photos I can get to date. The only thing is that the photos show them as silver/metallic but to my eyes they appear a slight pink / transparent somewhat.

 

[Geovoxic]

I will try to add the photos again as my first attempt failed.

 

[Geovoxic]

Another photo

 

[Geovoxic]

And one more

 

[Geovoxic]

The second photo actually has the body color alittle more true to what you see with the eye rather then the camera. Two of the fish have black back fins (like the first photo) and three have the red fins you see in the second photo as well as a white tip on the top black fins. Body shape wise they appear all the same except two seem maybe alittle more oval then the others.

 

[Geovoxic]

Having gone through some of the fish profiles found on this great site, could they be Black Phantom Tetras?

 

[anshuman]

humm, did u get them id? cool looking fish. its either black phatom or flame tetra as per wikipedia Flame tetra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[OrangeCones]

Having gone through some of the fish profiles found on this great site, could they be Black Phantom Tetras?

I believe you are correct. They can/do seem to change colors depending on the angle of the light and intensity of light. Nice looking fish and you have good camera skills.

 

[Geovoxic]

Anshuman, although they share some aspects of the flame tetra I am coming to the opinion that they are most likely black phantom tetras. I spent the night (I soooo need some sleep) checking out several profiles for the species after finding it here first and it sems to be the best match. Waaay cool! The fish store insisted they were cherry barbs. That demonstrates that just because the store sells the fish it doesnt necessarily mean they know what they are talking about.

Thanks Orange Cones. I have been known to take good photos when I am in the mood to pay attention to what I am doing. The problem I have with these guys is that they move around alot and can be quite fast which makes it difficult to get a good pose. I plan to take more photos of them as well as the ghost shrimp and the tank in general as the system starts to mature. It is only a few weeks started.

 

[anshuman]

heh . cool beans. ya your pics are really nice. Good luck.

 

[with_wet_hands]

The first and third fish are males of the black phantom tetra. The females of this species are also mostly black, but they differ from the males by having red on the adiose and ventral fins.

The second fish is probably Hyphessobrycon bentosi. (Note the red patches in each lobe of the caudal). Several species look similar to H. bentosi, which has been lumped loosely into a group called the "rosy tetras."

My new book "Tetras and Barbs" shows pictures of these: the black phantoms (male and female) are on page 68 and several candidates of the "rosy tetras" are shown on page 22.

--Randy Carey

 

[Geovoxic]

Thank you for the info. So if I understand this correctly I have two different tetra types in my tank? The shop owner insisted that one (black fin) was male and the other (red fin) were female. Several online profiles indicated the same was true of male and female black phantom tetras so now I am getting a tad confused. I want to be able to have potential mating couples but trying to sort out what I actually have. If I go back and he has more in his tank what should I be looking for to make mating pairs?

 

[lauraf]

Hi Geo:
I was at one of my LFS today, and I can see for sure now that the middle pictured tetra is what they called a rosy-finned tetra; the tank beside it had black phantoms, just like your top and bottom pictured fish. With_wet_hands is correct, as far as I'm concerned, in identifying two different tetras in your tank. Notice that the rosy-finned has more white trim around its black-coloured fins? That's exactly what they looked like at my LFS.
They must be very closely related, but not sure if they would breed successfully?

 

[Geovoxic]

Thanks folks. I guess I will head back some time this week to see if I can get a couple more of the black phantom tetras as they have captured my interest. For the first time last night the two males did the "territorial dispute dance" around the newly planted area and turned quite black which was interesting to observe. At present, if the two others are rosy-fin then the last one is most likely a female BPT. Got to get a photo of her to show but she is very active and hard to capture on image!

 

[kezdoc09]

yep these are deffo black phantoms although the second pic, the red one is a rosy tetra.