It took until the year 2006 that the tetra specialists Axel Zarske and Jaques Géry found out that the species described as Copella nattereri was practically not present in the hobby and that the red spotted Copella, which was named C. nattereri until then, was not known to science yet! So Zarske and Géry described the long time known Copella finally as Copella meinkeni.
The “real” Copella nattereri is an extremely beautiful fish, which we can offer currently from Peru. Once one has seen the fish alive it is almost impossible to confuse it with C. meinkeni. In C. nattereri there is a black band along the flanks that contains only one row of relatively large, deep red spots.
Copella species are kept best in realtively dark aquaria that should be decorated with dead leaves, peat and aquatic plants. Here they develope their full coloration. Basically these fish are peaceful and accept any type of usual fish food. Males become bigger than the females and have enlarged fins.
For our customers: Copella nattereri has code 219813 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
