From Peru a larger number of Tatia reached us thanks to this import we can now solve an more than 10 year old puzzle. In 2011 we received from this country monochrome Tatia, which could not be assigned to any known species (https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/tatia_sp_tahuayo_river_en/). Now it is clear: it is a monochrome color variant of T. intermedia. Mostly T. intermedia has a pattern of light, short, horizontal strokes; many of the current imports also show these, but there are also specimens with only a few strokes – and the monochrome dark ones.
The brightly reflecting lower eye-half of the fish is interesting; because this is obviously a rest-light-amplifier, that helps the fish to find its prey on its nightly hunt on into the water fallen landinsects. If the fish are not flashed at, one does not see this.
Tatia intermedia grows about 15 cm long and is mainly active at night and twilight. In principle, they are peaceful fish, but of course very small fish up to about 4 cm length are considered as food.
For our customers: the fish have code 295704 on our stocklist. Please note that we exvlusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
