GloFish Black Skirt Tetra Care Guide
The GloFish Black Skirt Tetra is a fluorescent form of Gymnocorymbus ternetzi. Care matches the wild black skirt tetra: a peaceful South American shoaler.
Overview
The GloFish Black Skirt Tetra is a fluorescent ornamental form of the black skirt or black widow tetra, Gymnocorymbus ternetzi, carrying a fluorescent protein gene. Its husbandry is the same as that of the wild-type fish. The species is a characin from the Rio Paraguay and Guapore (Guaporé) basins in Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina, where it lives in small, slow-moving creeks with dense vegetation.
Taxonomy
- Family: Characidae
- Genus: Gymnocorymbus
- Scientific name: Gymnocorymbus ternetzi var. GloFish
- Note: a fluorescent selectively engineered form of the black skirt tetra
Habitat
Wild black skirt tetras inhabit small, slow-flowing creeks with dense vegetation in the Paraguay and Guapore drainages of central South America. The waters are warm and soft to moderately hard.
Tank requirements
- Minimum tank volume: 80 L (about 21 gal)
- Temperature: 22-28 °C (72-82 °F)
- pH: 6.0-7.5
- GH: 4-15 °dGH
- School size: at least 6, larger groups reduce fin-nipping
- Lifespan: 3-5 years
Diet
The black skirt tetra is an omnivore. It accepts dried flakes and granules along with regular feedings of small live and frozen foods, which help maintain condition and colour.
Compatibility
The species is generally peaceful and lively and is best kept in a sizeable group, as too few individuals can lead to fin-nipping of slower tankmates. It suits community aquaria alongside livebearers, danios and peaceful bottom-dwellers, but long-finned, slow species such as bettas are best avoided.
Breeding
It is an egg-scatterer that spawns among fine-leaved plants and is relatively easy to breed in a separate tank; eggs hatch within roughly one to two days. The fluorescent trait is heritable, but propagation and sale of GloFish lines are restricted by their patent holders in many regions.