Shortly after the first import of Argonectes longiceps we were able to import another feather tetra, which has not yet been seen, at least by us: Hemiodus thayeria. This beautiful, elegant fish comes from the border area of Brazil and Colombia at the Rio Negro. The type specimen was already collected in 1925 by Carl Ternetz, but only in 1955 by James Böhlke worked on and named it, because the feather tetras are – from a systematic point of view – a quite complicated group. Very similar to H. thayeria are H. tocantinensis and H. ternetzi, but in both the dark longitudinal stripe begins directly behind the eye.
In the aquarium, H. thayeria show up as very peaceful and amazingly calm representatives of their genus, whose species are known to be somewhat shy and sometimes even tend to panic reactions. The very big eye and the reddish zone over the nose-back are remarkable. Obviously, both characteristics serve the species-recognition, because in the photo tank, both specimens were very interested in their mirror-picture; in the photo tank, a small pocket-mirror is installed in order to animate cichlids to mirror-fights; other fish, above all tetra and barbs ignore their mirror-picture usually, Hemiodus thayeria are a very noteworthy exception in this context.
Our animals are currently between 5 and 8 cm long, according to literature the species becomes about 9 cm long without the caudal fin, which is a total length of about 11 cm.
For our customers: the animals have code 258223 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
