Cyprinidae: Hyphessobrycon Flammeus

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Hyphessobrycon Flammeus

I imagine an old-timer could have taken one look at this fish and known what to do. You know the type. He/she steps up to a tank, leans over JUST far enough to identify the species, snorts some unintelligible Latin and proceeds to tell you how to get them to spawn, "blah-blah-78 degrees-blah-blah-3 days later-blah blah…" The old-timer will then walk away leaving you humbled. An experience like that also leaves me a little miffed. I want to shout at their back, "OH YAH? Well, come back here and write that down…"

That’s why we’re asked to write articles, I guess.

Hyphessobrycon flammeus is one of those "bred by the thousands" Florida farm tetras. I’ve seen it named "flame" and "von rio". It is of the same basic body shape of the serpae and the yellow tetra. It’s an attractive little fish with red shading that nearly qualifies as ‘rose’.