A great aquarium future can be predicted for this new dwarf tetra – it barely reaches a total length of 3 cm – now that breeding has been successful and the initially rather expensive rarity is coming onto the market in large numbers. The brilliance of the colors in this little animal is really quite incredible. The alpha male is the most intensely colored. The females are inconspicuously greenish, without red.
It is surprising that in the well collected Mato Grosso area in Brazil – the home of these fishes – such a jewel could escape attention until very recently. It was not until 2017 that the scientific description of this fish appeared. The exact locality is the Rio Formiga, a tributary of the Rio Juruena in the upper basin of the Rio Tapajós. The species name “myrmex” means “ant”, because of its small size and because of its native river, whose name translates as “ant river”.
For our customers: the animals have code 261383 (wild) and 261388 (bred) on our stocklist.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
