Gymnocorymbus Ternetzi – Black Skirt Tetra
Also called White Skirt Tetra, Black Widow, Black Tetra, Black Widow Tetra
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Origin and Tank Suggestions
This species comes from the waters of Paraguay, South Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. The
aquarium where you keep
Tetra should be about 50 cm high and well
planted, so they will have place for hiding, but with free swimming areas as well. The
water should have a
temperature from 20 to 26°C and the
hardness level should be between 5 and 19 dH.
pH should be about 7, but the
water can vary a bit acid or alkaline. Maybe I should mention that the
tank should be as large as it can be, but Black Skirt
Tetras prefer a deep
aquarium much more than shallow and longer
fish bowls. At least in my experience. The
fish like to swim vertically more than horizontally. But I won't claim that you have to put these
fish into an
aquarium which is one meter tall and 20 cm wide. I just saying that the
tank should have high
water level.
Behaviour
In general, it is not difficult to keep the Black Skirt
Tetra. It is a shoal
fish so you should keep more than 10 specimens in a
tank, but that also depends on the
tank size.
Black Skirt Tetra are a bit fearful, however I should mention that when our
fish were little they did not fear as much as they do now. Maybe it was because they were in an
aquarium which wasn’t placed in a busy place and they got fearful because of this reason. Later we moved them into a
tank where they see more movement , and they live happily there together with
Bloodfin Tetras. Anyway, Black Skirts are not very calm.
Bloodfins are, but Blacks aren’t. I don´t know why this is, because
Bloodfins should be more fearful than Black Skirts. Otherwise, Gymnocorymbus ternetzi is a peaceful
fish. Even though they are prey
fish in nature they tend not to be eaten by aggressive
fish in an
aquarium. It is a very fast
fish, so it can quickly escape from the hunter. Apart from this fact, this
fish should not be kept
with species which would chase and
stress them.
Stress is as uncomfortable for
fish as for humans and it will kill the
fish slowly.
Body
The Black Skirt
Tetra has a flat body, with high silver and black coloration which shines in the
aquarium. When this
tetra is scared, its colours usually disappear, but after a while, they reappear. The dorsal, tail and anal fin are black. On the silver body, there are three short stripes. One through the eye and the two remaining behind the gills. These stripes can be straight or wavy. Interesting is a small dorsal fin. When the
fish has enough
food, it grows up to 6 centimeters. Males are smaller and darker than females which have lighter colours. There exist albino forms of Black Skirts – the
fish is all white, also known as White Skirt
tetra and a long-fin form.
Breeding
The Black Skirt
Tetra is easy to breed in soft and slightly acidic
water. They lay eggs on
plants with soft leafs. At one breeding they can produce over 1000 eggs and if you have chosen two
fish which liked each other, the success is secured. After the eggs are laid the parents should be removed from the breeding
tank. The eggs hatch after 36 hours and at a
temperature of 26°C. After 7 days the fry can eat and what's best is to
feed fresh hatched Artemia salina. After about 10 days the newborns should be moved into a 50 liter
tank, so many little
fishes can grow and still have enough space. Of course, specimens will grow fast. If you are not an experienced breeder, the amount of the
fish could be a problem for you. The solution is drastic, but this is to best to save other
fish if you don´t know what to do with such many newborns. I don´t know if I could do it however. If there is no other way, the best way is to
feed them to bigger fry of Artemia salina after they
start to swim. The most adaptable
fish will survive, but the weaker ones will starve and later they’ll die. It is cruel, but this is the way to keep the „best fishes“ only.
Feeding
These
Tetras will eat everything. They like nearly every kind of
food, but only if you don’t scare them when feeding. When they are scared, they will not eat. That is why you have to move carefully when you are feeding them. It is good to always make the same moves when you´re going to
feed your
fish. Then the
fishes will know that feeding time is here and they will be prepared. The shape of the body tells us that these
Tetras eats
food which swims in the
water only, but they are capable of eating
food from the surface. Usually, those are fast movements and you only see that the
food is gone and the surface is moving. They are incredibly fast. Basically,
feed them granules, flakes and sometimes with
frozen food too. Or at least I hope they eat it, because when I´m feeding them, I only see
Bloodfins through the hole between the
light and glass (that’s in my
tank).
Pictures
Some information is from the article Miloslava Michalika – Akvarium Terarium 1982/5
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Black Skirt Tetra Species
has been viewed times since June 30, 2009.
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