Animal-World > Freshwater Fish > Characins > Glowlight Tetra

Glowlight Tetra

Family: Characidae

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Hemigrammus erythrozonusPhoto © Animal-World: Courtesy David Brough

     With a glowing orange stripe across the center of its body, the Glowlight Tetra is a beautiful fish!

     The Glowlight Tetra is a schooling fish and is one of the most peaceful tetras. They are most comfortable in an aquarium with floating plants as well as some open spaces to swim in. Like all fish, they do not over eat, but the Glowlight Tetra does like to eat a small amount of food several times a day. It is best to feed them what they will eat in about three minutes, three or four times a day.

For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Freshwater Aquarium

Distribution:      The Glowlight Tetra was described by Durbin in 1909. They are found in South America in the Essequibo River of Guyana and they feed on worms, small crustaceans and plants.

Status:      The species is not listed on the IUCN Red List.

Description:      The Glowlight Tetra is a small more slim-bodied species of tetra. It is similar in appearance to the Black Neon Tetra with its horizontal stripe that seems to glow, but is a distinctly different fish. They can readily be identified, as their body is transparent. As they get older, the stripe becomes more and more pronounced.

Size - Weight:      These fish get up to 1.5 inches (4 cm).

Care and feeding:      Since they are omnivorous the Glowlight Tetra will generally eat all kinds of live, fresh, and flake foods. To keep a good balance give them a high quality flake food everyday. Feed brine shrimp (either live or frozen) or blood worms as a treat.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:      These fish will swim in all areas of the aquarium.

Acceptable Water Conditions:      This is a very undemanding species, as can be seen by the wide range of acceptable conditions.
     Hardness: 2-15 ° dGH
     Ph: 5.8 to 7.5
     Temp: 74-82 ° F (24-28 ° C)

Social Behaviors:      The Glowlight Tetra are generally a good community fish. They will do best in schools with soft light, floating plants, and peat filtered water.

Sexual Differences:      The female is larger and stronger than the male and has a round ventral section. The male is slenderer and has more color.

Breeding/Reproduction:      Suggested conditions: 82 ° F, 6 ° dGH
     The Glowlight Tetra are egg layers. When they spawn they lock fins, then while clasped they perform a type of roll-over process in the vegetation. Thus the female releases about a dozen eggs at time and the male fertilizes them.

Buy Glowlight Tetras From LiveAquaria.com

     Because of this spawning behavior, the Glowlight Tetra is one tetra that must not have too dense a spawning vegetation! See the description of how Characins breed in Breeding Freshwater Fish.

Availability:      The Glowlight Tetra is readily available.

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Latest Comments
I love my 3 glowlights very much. When I bought them they're fins were almost gone, but now their fins are back to normal. They are pretty active and look extremely beautiful when they school with my 3 rummynose tetras. Extremely hardy and attack flake food fish boy 2009-12-30
I currently have 4 glowlight tetra in my tank along with 9 neon tetra, 1 plecostomus, 2 dwarf gourami, 1 siamese fighter, 1 corydoras catfish and 1 albino corydoras. The glowlights look amazing when they school with the neons. They are a beautiful fish that look even better when the tank is backed with black plastic. jon 2009-05-21
Hey, I have a one gallon tank (very small), so I figured if I bought 5 tetra fish they would be ok because they are small. Well I had 3 neon tetras and 2 glow tetras. They were doing great, I had them for two weeks, then one day I found one of the glow tetras dead. Then the next day the other glow tetra was also found dead. I have no clue why, they seemed to be doing well. I have the tank at room temp. and was feeding them tropical fish flakes once a day. I have the built in light on the tank turned on all day and I turn it off at night. Dose anyone have a clue as to why my fish died? Please email me at amberwable@yahoo.com with any info u may have. Thank you Amber 2008-10-21
Has anyone else noticed a dimming of their glo-lite tetras while they're spawning? I thought maybe those two were sick, but today they're back to full brightness whilst no longer doing the dance of love. Two of them also look like they've got some damage to their tails, so I'm wondering if my guppies are getting nippy. Besides them I also have neon tetras, an albino and an emerald cory, an upside down catfish, and two mystery snails. None of these guys should be aggressive, right? They're all fairly small and have a 55 gallon tank. Thanks for your input. ben 2008-08-29
I have 6 Glowlights. They were purchased 3 days ago but 2 seem to have lost some colour. Is there anything wrong with them? Roy Amey 2008-08-23
Some of the coolest comments:
Out of the few Characin species I have kept, this is one of the most rewarding. They school up tightly in my 20g tall aquarium and frequently court each other. They seemed to school even more tightly once I added a piece of driftwood so I think they prefer a slightly "blackwater" environment. I have yet to get them to spawn successfully, but right now they share the tank with three Bolivian Rams so this is expected. A slightly dim light shows off their color the best which is unfortunate because it limits the kinds of live plants the animal can be kept with. 1 watt per gallon or even a little less really makes them look brilliant. William Browne 2007-01-17
these are really nice little fish and school really good. they brighten up the tank. they do fine with my shark, platies, guppies, gold gourami, catfish, and others kerry 2004-03-13

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