As much as I like my Neons and other brightly colored fish, there is some not so colorful fish out there that used to be carried by LFS's
One that I've had in the past is the less flashy Flame Tetra relative, the Yellow Tetra or Hyphessobrycon bifasciatus.
Occurring in the same streams and waters near Rio de Janeiro as the Flame Tetra, it was often considered as a 'contaminant fish' in shipments. It grows a little larger, but has the same temperament, hardiness and in the right conditions is a pretty fish.
Sometimes I do appreciate the subtle coloring of my female boesemani rainbows but on most days I would prefer dashing fish like Cardinal tetras or the Males of the above species.
Glo light danios are pretty under any light, but that is hardly muted... I do like my hybrids with the pink top and bottoms, with blue in the middle. Looks a bit like a hot blue flame.
Glow light tetra is a different thing though in case there is confusion.
Nothing more satisfying than raising 50 of those to saleable size. They have an interesting spawning move. They lock sides and do a half barrel roll. It would be good to heavily stock the spawning tank with Moss or spawning yarn, they're really efficient at finding nearly all their eggs when spawning, in a community tank it's hopeless, every other fish in the tank helps themselves too.
Here's another old favorite: The Head and Tail-light tetra,
Hemigrammus Ocellifer. These guys spawned in my 5 gallon bucket temporary 'tanks' when we did our last move. had about 8 adults spread between 3 buckets. Surprised me because I netted the adults out into the 29 gallon and left the plants in their buckets for about a week while I got them settled in and the decor finalized. I go to check on the plants and there's about 25~30 baby fish lurking in the water sprite fronds. They grew out to be some really pretty Head and Tail-lights. Another really good beginner's tetra for someone wanting to attempt their first Tetra spawning. You can condition them on frozen food, they're not fuzzy eaters.
For me color is not important if the fish has some what of personally. I like pencil fish. There are lot bright colors fish but the ones I have are pretty plain. They are always at the top of the tank and they make up for lack of color with there behavior. Bright color fish are great but a lot of time we walk pass some of the best fish because of there color or lack of color.
I have Blue Finned Killifish coming tomorrow. In the picture below I see the coloration they are capable of in the perfect condition. They too are caught with feeder fish and treated the same here in the US. Native to the Southeast. But moving across the Southern US.
These are some of my favorite fish. Just thought I'd let you know they've been properly described this year and named P. luminatus. They were formerly known as P. cf. paskai; the true P. paskai isn't quite as vibrant.
Ag no man, I thought one angelfish wasn't feeling well and was hiding behind the tile in the tank.... I just went to look, the bastard is guarding eggs. GOing to be a lot of work these next few months. Spawned the glow lights this morning, just put some zebra danio to work spawning just now before I went to do tank rounds.
But bastard fish, I was even feeding them less to try and prevent this. I have no idea who the mate was, that laid the eggs, I'll go sit and observe a bit. Been more than 10 years since I had angels spawning.
Another old favorite The Checkerboard or Checker Barb, Oliotius oligolepis.
These fish when first arrived in your LFS can be somewhat drab and dull looking. They never show the true potential of their iridescence until in tank they like, and with decent sidelighting like morning sunlight. They also tend to be smaller, like Cherry Barbs with a taller body. Hardy and active, they like a bit of vegetation with their diet, but will not attack plants, they do like green algae and diatoms. A school of them in a 45 tall with heavy plants and driftwood is magical.
The Glolight Danio, Celestichthys choprae, is another fish of subtle coloration, I was in a LFS yesterday and saw a few that had just been acclimated to their tank and they were already looking really stunning.
I always though Rosy Barbs at the LFS were boring and drab looking. When LED's were first starting to get popular I bought one and the employee asked if he could try it over a tank. He happened to to put over the rosy tank and they became one of my favorite fish now.
Thanks! Yeah they're doing great. Ma Nature provides extra grub in this case. There's thousands of springtails along the waterline and Water Hyacinth that they jump at, our local frogs were laying eggs weekly in this tank and when I'm out working with the tanks I will swat a mosquito or 15 into the water. I think there are other insects laying eggs in the pond. I've seen Damselflies and Dragonflies lay eggs in there, I'm sure the chance of their larvae's survival is slim to none with so many watchful piscine eyes.
Thought I'd give this thread a 'bump' with some more fish of subtle coloration.
Pearl Danios:
I kept these as a teenager as a 'school' of 5 in with my Macropodus, Occelatus roundtail Paradise fish, which is not a fish of subtle coloration, in fact they can be quite spangled if they get enough live food.
And the Croaking Gourami: Trichopsis Vittata
Which like the smaller Sparkling Gourami is a bit spangled with metallic red and blue patterns, but is a lot less colorful overall.
i have a school of 6 bloodfin tetras. their red fins are beautiful
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