Hemigrammus erythrozonus

New Fish Tank Tips: Don’t place your tank next to a window. Sunlight entering your aquarium will cause major headaches in the form of green algae. Direct sunlight will also cause your tank water temperature to increase.

Contents of this page belong to www.fishlookup.com Hemigrammus erythrozonus, also known as glowlight tetra, is a small tropical fish found in the wild in the Essequibo River, Guyana, South America. It is silver in colour and a bright iridescent orange to red stripe extends from the snout to the base of its tail. The front part of the dorsal fins are the same color as the stripe. Other fins are silver to transparent. Glowlight tetras are peaceful and shoaling fish. It is slightly larger than the neon tetra, and its peaceful disposition makes it an ideal, and popular community tank fish. They should be kept with similar sized and non-aggressive species.

Glowlights are omnivorous and in the aquarium eat small live, frozen and dry foods and flake foods. The feeding of vegetable matter is suggested to vary the diet of the glowlight tetra.

Glo lights, glo-light tetras, and glolights are alternative names. H. gracilus is old scientific name. Red-line rasbora ( Rasbora pauciperforata) of Malaysia and Indonesia are different species with similar coloring. Glowlight tetras are readily available and are usually very inexpensive. In some areas, the golden glowlight tetra and albino glowlight varieties are being sold.

They are best seen in the aquarium if kept in subdued lighting with dark substrate or even no light – background. They can be kept in tanks 20L or larger, 50L being ideal. The water should be soft to slightly hard. d°GH of 6° to 15°. Use a slightly acidic pH of 6.8 in the range 6.0 – 7.5. They prefer a temperature of 25 °C in the range of 22° – 28° °C (72° – 82 °F). The hardiness of this tetra variety allows it to easily adapt to harder water, although soft water is essential if you intend to breed this variety.

Like all small tetras, glowlights (Hemigrammus erythrozonus) are happiest, most active, and most aesthetically pleasing when in a shoal. A minimum aquarium length of 60 cm will make them more comfortable when swimming. Glowlights prefer a well planted tank for hiding, but with some open water for free swimming. They should be a group of at least four with eight or more to make them feel secure. They tend to swim in smaller groups when a potential predator is present and swim freely when comfortable. They are often bought by aquarium owners to play a ‘second fiddle’ role to the neon tetra. Although they generally shoal separately from neons and cardinal tetras, they will often shoal alongside the latter, making an arresting visual spectacle. Listed as medium-level swimmers, glowlight tetras tend to stay about an 3 cm off the bottom. However, in most aquaria, glowlights ascend to the top half of the tank whilst being fed.[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Hemigrammus erythrozonus’]