tetra id

[angel51431]

Hi guys. haven't been here much lately, but I revamped my 30 gal recently and it has sparked some curiosity.

Five years ago when I started the tank I purchased 8 "gold tetras" from petco. They were quite small and had a very bright gold sheen to them. I don't remember if they had any colour to their fins, but they had a black spot on the tail. Petco still sells those same "gold" tetras.

Fast forward to now, four of them are still with me (had 7 for four years and lost three in the past year unfortunately). And they're not so gold anymore. In fact they look an awful lot like silver tip tetras from pictures I'm seeing on the internets. They are clear/silvery like your typical tetra, have lost the gold shine unless you look at them from funny angles, and have developed red fins with white tips. And they have grown a bit but still have the torpedo shape.

I bring pictures for demonstration purposes

first three fish are the ones in question. There are also two pristellas on the right with yellow dorsal fins.

another one, featuring two pristellas, three tetras in question and two celebes rainbows on the right.

So you guys think I'm looking at gold tetras or silver tips? Or another species that i haven't even considered?

 

[OrangeCones]

My LFS sells them as "Gold Neon Tetras"...They say that live foods or color enhancing foods can bring out their colors, and they stay colored up better in larger groups as they like to school.

I keep rasboras, but it works the same with them as well. Pretty fish you have. Maybe they are getting 'old'?

 

[Lotus]

Good to see you!

I had a quick look in my aquarium book, and there are so many similar tetras that I'm not sure a real ID is going to be easy.

 

[angel51431]

Lotus, thank you, likewise

Orange - I don't think they're "old" because they've looked like this for as long as i can remember. I just know they looked different once when i bought them. Now I admit that I hardly paid attention to them for the past five years. I put them in as a teeny shiny space filler basically. Probably why I just now looked at them and realized that "oh snap they don't look like gold tetras anymore". They're healthy and happy. I mean they lost that gold effect at some point but it must have been long ago because I don't recall the transition at all.There was no sudden change or anything. I just had a good look, finally.

There's the theory that gold tetras get their gold sheen from microorganisms that are found in their environment. so maybe its a lack of parasites in my tank?

Lotus, I think you're right and I doubt I'll get an exact ID. And really it doesn't make a huge difference, I'm just curious. There really are a lot of tetras that look an awful lot alike - clear body, shiny gut. If the pristellas didn't have the yellow dorsal fin, I'd have trouble telling them apart even.

 

[Lotus]

And some fish just lose color as they age. So, they could just have dulled as they matured. Possibly if they're no longer able to breed they lost color, too. Just an idea.

The book I checked had pages and pages of tetras, many that were silver/gold with few distinguishing marks. Unless Petsmart has the scientific name on the label, it may be hard.

 

[stoddern]

I had a simularly hard time IDing my danios they just look like to many other kinds, my danios also started to fade in color (granted I only have 2 but plan on bringing it up to 6 soon) I started feeding all my fish freeze dried blood worms a few times a week they all love the stuff (my cats turn a nose to it) and the color started to come back in the danios and even my gourami got brighter and more pronounced color, now after about a month of them getting the blood worms as a treat my danios won't touch flake for the most part and only come up to feed on the worms, so much for feeding them variety

 

[bmoraski]

Ya once you have had a nice Steak , who wants to go back to processed hamburg with lots of fillers. lol