Detailed Information About the Glowlight Tetra Aquarium Fish

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Brief Overview

Another wonderful addition to your tank could easily be the Glowlight Tetra. Tetra have a way of always having some of teh most beautiful colors in teh entire hobby, and the orange neon sheen of these fish is absolutely no exception. I was very surprised to see that when I put my new Glowlight Tetra in, they immidiately started schooling with my Blue Neon Tetra. It makes sense as they are extremely similar fish in both their physical makeup, behavior, diet, and lifespan. Instead of a bright neon-blue stripe down its body the Glowlight Tetra Tropical Aquarium Fish has a vibrant orange stripe from mouth to tail, supplemented with AWESOME little glowing orange eyes. As an aquarium fish, like many other Tetra Aquarium Fish, it is superior. They aren't exactly 'hearty' as they so succumb to disease and shock fairly easily, but they are more hearty than their neon blue counterpart. Best kept in schools of three at the very least; these fish will stay in fairly uniform, and beautiful schools if you choose to own ten or more. For a little variety try five Blue Neon Tetra and five Glowlight's. Some great tank mates for the Glowlight Tetra Tropical Aquarium Fish are Blue Neon Tetra, Cory Catfish, Emperor Tetra, or Harlequin Rasbora

To watch a Youtube video of this fish click here.

Detailed Wikipedia Information

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.

They are a medium size tetra growing to up to 4 to 5 cm (1.6 to 2 inches), notably larger than both neon tetras and cardinal tetras. They have a life span of 2 to 4 years when kept in good conditions. 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.

Water conditions

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. Use a slightly acidic pH of 6.8 in the range 6.0 - 7.5. They prefer a temperature of 25 degrees C in the range of 22 degrees - 28 degrees C (72 degrees - 82 degrees 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.

Shoaling

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.

Like most tetras, females are larger and more fat bodied than the more slender male. It may be hard to tell male from female until the fish are fully mature and females fill with eggs.

Breeding

Glowlight tetras breed similarly as most egg-scattering small fish. They have been bred in captivity as moderate level of difficulty. Breeding tank set up : A small 40L all glass tank with soft water hardness up to 8 dGH and carbonate hardness should not be higher that 2 dCH. Water temperature should be kept between 26 and 28 degrees C (78 F to 82 F) . Adding peat to the tank or filter will soften water and make it slightly acidic. The tank should have dim or no lighting. They spawn over fine-leaved plants. Java moss, Fontinalis and Vesicularia dubyana are suggested but not mandatory. The use of spawning mop made of woolen thread can also be used. 1 cm glass beads or a spawning grate will help at the bottom to protect eggs from being eaten by adults. Parents Conditioning: Feed the pair kept separately with a variety of live foods, frozen food or dry food for a few weeks. When the female is well rounded transfer the pair to the breeding tank in the late afternoon hours. The spawning will occur in the following morning or the next day, if no spawning behavior is shown after 3 days start over the conditioning of the pair.

Spawning behavior : The male will swim around in a quick manner locking his fins when near the female. During the spawning act both fish roll over, when the female is the upside down position she ejects the eggs while the male fertilises them. Usually 120-150 eggs are dropped in plants and on the bottom. When the pair is done, they will be grazing for the eggs, they should be then removed.

Raising the fry :The eggs are light sensitive, so the breeding tank should be as dark as possible. Some believe the light contributes greatly to the eggs fungusing, though fungusing has more to do with cleanness of tank and water conditions. The fry will hatch in 20 to 25 hours. They should look like small slivers of glass. Fry can be feed with, infusoria, paramecium culture, crushed flakes and rotifers after they have used all the yolk sack. By the 4th day should be introduced very small portion of newly hatched brine shrimp. Young consume relatively large pieces of live food such as nauplii of brine shrimp. Later microworms can be added to the diet. Live food has the advantage of less pollution in the water, in case not consumed immediately.

Care of the breeding tank : Bottom sediment should always be removed and regular water changes done during the rearing period in order to avoid an accumulation of ammonium and nitrates which can be toxic to the fry. Although large quantities of fry will incubate in waters of low hardness, most of the fry may soon contract non-infectious, constitutional dropsy, and die within a short time. Those who survive will grow well. By the 12th day, they will show signs of a silver coloring. At three weeks of age, the fry will start showing their characteristic orange line and will be a size of about 1 cm. By two months they will be about 2 cm.

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