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Hi Enoran the easiest way for me is to look at the anal fin of the fish. This is edged in black and white in H. eques but not in H. sweglesi. Also serpaes always have black in the dorsal fin whereas with phantoms only the females do.
Calling the tetra experts here ...
I wanted some colors in my tanks of Penguin & Rummy Nose Tetras and some red-colored fish will definitely lightened up my tank.
I suppose the Red Phantom Tetras will be the most ideal. However, I'm wary upon the fact that I might have got Serpaes instead of Red Phantoms.
No doubts Serpaes are attractive but their fin-nippings on almost every fish in the tank does not go well with me.
Hi Enoran the easiest way for me is to look at the anal fin of the fish. This is edged in black and white in H. eques but not in H. sweglesi. Also serpaes always have black in the dorsal fin whereas with phantoms only the females do.
Thanks Matt, that was helpful.
Goggled for Serpaes pictures and all specimens I seen have a distinct white tip at the anal fin.
By the way, you mean male H. sweglesi does not have any black at their dorsals?
Yes that's what I meant, sorry if it wasn't clear Enoran. The dorsal is also a bit extended and tapers into a point in male sweglesi, whereas in the females it's rounded with black and white markings.
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...y.php?id=10659
out of about 25 fish I have, only one fish shows an all red dorsal like this with no markings...others have a black marking on dorsal, and some have a white spot too. I've never really studied this fish, so I don't have a clue.
Last edited by raglan; 24th Aug 2008 at 06:51.
As Matt points out, Serpae has distinct Black color anal fin that ends at a white tip (if i get this correct)Originally Posted by raglan
Did you buy all the 25 from a single tank from your local shop? If not chances are, some of those might be Serpae Tetras.
Did you see some contrasting behavior in your 25 fishes?
As past experience with serpae has taught me, these guys are fin nippers and will nip each other as well as those from different species.
On the contrary from what I have read, Red Phantoms are way more docile.
Every fish I have is wild caught and comes from Oliver Lucanus of BelowWater. He would definitely , definitely, know them correctly.
They all came in one batch and were very small size.
They have been very reasonable fish so far, no trouble with the other wild angels that were being quarantined, and now are in an altum tank, where they are keeping well away from the altums if the altums look hungry. They have not nipped corys nor angelfish , and angelfish ventral fins are perfect for nipping.
Spent an hour or so looking about on the internet and at photos and found an article suggesting that several variants of Red Phantom are in existence.
interesting thing I just noticed is that I had two with only red dorsal this morning, but then I saw them swtching to black dorsal momentarily !
I had these fish in a tank that I could not observe much in.
now they are in the open in a reasonable location for viewing, and I'm noticing these things for the first time.
Hi Raglan, in my experience the tips of the males' dorsal fins do tend to be darker, more so when they're displaying at each other but not to the extent where I would describe the colour as black. Interesting about the possibility of different colour forms, do you have a link to the article you mention?
Cheers
Matt
I'll try to backtrack, but I really don't know where I end up sometimes during 3 or 5 AM sleeptrolling the internet. There was no scientific basis offered, or I would have bookmarked it.
Last edited by Quixotic; 25th Aug 2008 at 07:53. Reason: Remove immediate quote
boink. I'm still woozy so it was easy to find
http://www.theaquarians.net/html/fis...C=173&nl=&nt=1
Cheers for the link raglan.
you're welcome !
I think the previous link from fishbase compared to the top left #2 and #3 photos shows why they say that. The dorsal spot is the same dark colour as the "heart spot". The fishbase photo is second row down on the left, also.
http://images.google.ca/images?q=red%20phantom%20tetra&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GBfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
Thanks for the link raglan ...
Looks like I'm more confused with Serpae and Red Phantom every passing day
i don't know how accurate this is, but personally when i compare mature serpaes with mature red phantoms, i find that serpaes are more deep bodied than red phantoms. Also, i find that mature serpaes tend to be more opaque than red phantoms, and the dorsal fin shape of red phantoms are slightly more arced/sickle-shaped than serpaes.
Just some layman/non-scientific observations which might be very wrong.
Jinxed fishy photographer
[Specialist]
This?
And the female.
ck
Last edited by CK Yeo; 31st Aug 2008 at 11:03.
Very detailed pictures of male and female Hyphessobrycon sweglesi
Any Hyphessobrycon eques pictures to post, Bro CK ?
Jinxed fishy photographer
[Specialist]
To add to the confusion. Found a batch of these with slight difference in dorsal pattern and a lot less red. Same size as the one shown in the pics easlier. Still Hyphessobrycon sweglesi?
I do not have a serpae pic (yet). Most in the LFS are in bad shape due to overcrowding and fin nipping.
Random serpae tetra image from google image.
from http://www.unclemikespetworld.ie/Pages/Fish.html
ck
Think the fish in the picture should still be a Hyphessobrycon sweglesi.
The anal fin in the H.Sweglesi, has nice arc while the serpae's is rather straight.
it just seems that yellow pigment is showing and not red, as usually there is orangey red. All the rest looks the same.
Once I find my camera USB I'll show mine with total red dorsal and black dorsal with spots.
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