Cardinal Tetra

Cardinal Tetra is a variety of freshwater fish that belongs to the Characidae family. This fish variety is native to South America. It is an extremely popular aquarium fish, but is less prevalent than the other tetra varieties. The common name, Cardinal Tetra of the fish, refers to the luminous red coloration, reminiscent of the robes of a cardinal.

Features

The Cardinal Tetra breed is a small fish variety, with a body length of 2 inches. The fish appears with a red color band that extends to the complete length of its body. Females and males show only some little differences, but female fish will have rather a more profound body with a rounder stomach. As this fish breed is a shoaling variety in the wild, clusters of six or more fish is supposed to be maintained in an aquarium even though larger clusters are preferred. Though these fish will shoal with neon tetras, a combination of these two fish varieties, totaling six as a minimum is sufficient.

Diet

The Cardinal Tetra varieties are omnivorous, and they will feed on an extensive collection of aquarium foods. Conditioning fishes of this variety for breeding will typically need the use of live foods, such as Daphnia.

Breeding

In the wild, the Cardinal Tetra variety swims upstream in great numbers to parts of its local river habitat entirely enclosed over by rainforest canopy. Such water is exposed to intense shading by the trees of the rainforest, and almost no sunlight arrives at them. Here, this fish variety spawns in huge aggregations. In the aquarium, a single couple can be habituated for breeding, but the reproduction aquarium not only requires correct chemical parameters of water, but it also requires to be greatly shaded to imitate the low light situation of the native spawning basis of the fish.

Reproduction

If the Cardinal Tetra fish breeds are prepared to spawn, the slimmer male fish will pursue the female fish into fine-leaved plants, which generally indicate the existence of mature eggs in her reproductive tract, must be readily apparent at this point. If the female fish is prepared, she will allow the male fish to swim beside her, and jointly, the couple will discharge eggs and sperm. If the eggs are lush, and set aside in dark environs, they will hatch in three days. They have a modest growth rate, and the fish assumes full mature coloration only after 12 weeks, according to the food quality and the water of the aquarium.

The average lifespan of the Cardinal Tetra fish is 4 years.