Poecilocharax weitzmani/Black Darter Tetra

**apistomaster** · 1st Nov 2009, 11:54

I wondered if any members have experience keeping and breeding
Pociliocharax weitzmani, Black Darter Tetras?
I just bought 24 young specimens a few days ago. They are still small but some of the males are colored up well but still have a ways to go before their fins are fully developed.
I am keeping them in soft water with 40 ppm TDS and a pH of 6.o and they are doing well.
I have tried them a couple times before but I always received sick and starved specimens but this new batch is in good condition and eating well. They like decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and newly hatch brine shrimp. They also seem to be feeding on invisible "bugs" in the Java and Flame moss.
I have about 16 Parotocinclus cf. epplyei and 6 Aspidoras pauciradiatus sharing the tank with them.
I know males guard eggs laid inside PVC pipe sections a little like Apsitogramma species. All in all, they are an interesting species and males are very pretty.
I welcome hearing about the experience of others with this Tetra.

**Jungle-mania** · 2nd Nov 2009, 00:30

Provide them with alot of plant shelter as they are rather shy. Also live and frozen daphnia seem to be a good source of food for them and they eat alot. Unlike other tetras kept, I never had a casualty from diseases spread from live food, but they do not like poor water quality and die fast if the conditions become too bad. The good news is that they do become more robust as they mature. They are certainly a beautiful fish to keep.

**hwchoy** · 2nd Nov 2009, 00:37

the correct name should be Poecilocharax weitzmani

**stormhawk** · 2nd Nov 2009, 01:10

They are fragile, only do well in planted tanks and require small live food to thrive. They don't seem to take dried foods very well. I never got mine to live past a week. Without live foods they just don't seem to do very well.

Since you seem to be doing well on feeding and housing them, just follow the info available on the web.

**tetroid** · 2nd Nov 2009, 13:39

I bought a group of six of them a couple of years ago. Usual story - they were small and half dead when I got them. Normally I wouldn't buy fish in such condition, but I was so excited to see them I couldn't resist. The day after I bought them, I discovered they had ich. I treated that, but they just wouldn't eat. Within a month they were all dead. I never found a single body.

From what I've read, if you can get them to eat, you'll do ok. Lots of people say they eat only live food, but others say they've had luck with very small pellet foods. I'm going to try them again soon. This time I'll have live food, frozen daphnia, AND micro pellets on hand.

**doppelbanddwarf** · 2nd Nov 2009, 13:49

They do feed actively on decap bbs. I think the decap bbs in the filter output current makes the decap bbs look like live food to them. They totally rejected other forms of dried food, even crushed pellets floating in the current.
However i also wasn't able to keep them alive for more than 2 months. Not sure whether it was the food.

**apistomaster** · 3rd Nov 2009, 14:02

My Black Darters haven't been eating the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs as well as I would like so I need to hatch out some live brine shrimp. Today I dredged up the bottom muck of my summer time mosquito larvae pools for blood worms and the Black Darters were very enthisiastic about eating the smallest worms. I think they need mostly live foods for them to do well in the long run. Some had trouble eating, a sign of prolonged fasting I believe.
If my live blood worms survive awhile longer and they take Artemia nauplii, I will try to introduce them to Grindal Worms. Few fish turn them down,
Poeciliocharax weitzmani are truly a challenging fish to keep. I do think if they get some size to them then they will be easier to keep. Mine can only eat the very smallest of my live blood worms and those will be gone once the pool freezes, I have a chance at being more successful with this bunch. I need to top it off so there is enough water to make freezing harder and air to prevent any ice from completely covering the pool. I need a good supply of live blood worms to help them recover from previous fasting and to resume growing.

Thank you all for sharing your experience. Most of what you told me I have been through with them before but these are small but still the most healthy specimens I have had. I have 24 to work with. They don't like each other's company all that much but I have provided them a great deal of plant and wood cover in a US 20 gallon long, 12 X 12 X 30 inches.

**apistomaster** · 13th Nov 2009, 11:31

My Black darter tetras have begun to recover from their export ordeal.
I was fortunate to have some small live blood worms on hand. I got an established Grindal Worm culture from a friend and my Black Darters really liked those. Many were starved and it was hard for them to swallow their first worm. Once they all had eaten enough Grindal worms and their stomach began to stretch they began eating them in large numbers. All have gained weight and most have begun growing again. Their colors are really becoming brilliant and seeing the males displaying is a warming sight.
Mine only seem to eat live foods so I have been feeding them small amounts frequently. None are more than 2.5 cm TL.
Their tank was already a well established soft water aquarium with good moss growth on pieces of locally collected drift wood. I added a potted Echinodoras parviflora var. "Tropica" and some cherry tree leaves. It is the fall season here and the deciduous trees have been dropping their leaves.
These sure are a fascinating but demanding little species.

**illumnae** · 17th Nov 2009, 22:17

I got mine to take NLS growth formula and they lasted about 5-6 months. But thereafter they started to pass away 1 by 1 of unknown causes.

**apistomaster** · 19th Nov 2009, 00:09

Hi Illumnae,
I am convinced that it is necessary to commit to a live food diet to keep the Black Darters in peak health for the long term.
Mine have rapidly filled out and begun to grow on a diet of cultured Grindal worms and some small live blood worms. That is all I am feeding mine.
There is probably no getting around the fact that they are a generally pain to feed but are rewarding in other ways that makes them worth it if food is not a problem.