Care for the Black Phantom Tetra

The Black Phantom Tetra, scientific name Hyphessobrycon megalopterus, is a freshwater fish that is native to various areas in South America, including Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. In the wild, it enjoys eating mostly crustaceans, including some worms. Its natural habitat is very densely planted, with temperatures ranging from 22 to 28 degrees Celsius.

Despite its dull colors the fish is one of the most popular tetras for home aquariums. It has a tetragonal body with a dull gray to silver color except for the female's dorsal fin and all of the male's fins which are black. The males also tend to have a black patch around their gills, on each side of their body. In addition the female's rear and adipose fins are all a reddish color. The fish is popular because of its beautiful schooling and display behavior. The males are extremely territorial and frequently attack each other, but they rarely cause life-threatening damage. The tetras are small fish, and rarely grow longer than 4.5 cm.

This is a schooling fish meaning that it appreciates having a crowd, but will do best with only 4 to 6 other fish, especially in a small aquarium. This is because the males can be extremely aggressive towards each other. The optimal environment should be between 22 and 28 degrees Celsius (72-78 degrees Fahrenheit) with a pH from 6.0-7. The hardness of the water should be around 18 dGH, but can go as low as 10. It is considered a beginner fish as it is extremely hardy, but does need a lot of care in changes of water. The tetra will eat just about anything including both live and flake food. To keep them in optimal health this diet should be varied including fine flakes and live brine shrimp or blood worms. However, some people say that live food is more likely to bring out the fish's natural beauty.

The tank setup for the Black Phantom, beyond the values already given, is pretty simple. The fish's natural habitat is very densely planted, meaning that the fish will thrive best with lots of floating plants- preferably live. They will be more comfortable if much of this foliage is something that they camouflage with. The lighting should be subdued, but constant, and the bottom of the tank should have a dark substrate. If you have a lot of floating plants then you can raise the level of light. The tank should be at least 60 cm long, longer if there is a large number of fish schooling. These fish definitely need enough space to keep to themselves so that the males can all stake out their own area in the tank. Otherwise, they will fight each other. Finally, if you wish to coax the fish into breeding, you should reduce the pH and reduce the level of light, or add in more floating plants.

Sources:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/tetras/p/blackphanom.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_phantom_tetra

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/tetrafish/blackphantomtetra.php