Hummingbird Tetras

[ForteanFish]

Anyone have aby experience with Hummingbird Tetras?  I'm not finding much online.  I have a 10 gallon tank with 9 chili rasboras and red cherry shrimp.  Would 8 be alright in a 10 gallon?  I'm seeing very little online about tank size and compatibility.

[Guppysnail]

I believe @Odd Duck keeps these. 

[Tony s]

aquadiction.com has info on them. really pretty. but maybe too large for 8 in a 10g? 3/4 inch long and it says they like pristine water with little organics, Read... low nitrates.

Maybe? haven't seen this one in person. If it's small bodied like the chillis you could. 

 

 

[ForteanFish]

On 3/1/2024 at 11:39 AM, Tony s said:

aquadiction.com has info on them. really pretty. but maybe too large for 8 in a 10g? 3/4 inch long and it says they like pristine water with little organics, Read... low nitrates.

Maybe? haven't seen this one in person. If it's small bodied like the chillis you could. 

 

 

That's what I was wondering.  I've seen some people claiming they are great for nano tanks.  I kinda wanted another schooling type fish for my 10 gallon tank since my chilis do not take up too much space at all. I don't know if they need a longer tank though.  

[Tony s]

my only thought is if they're fat bodied like harlequins, they might be too big. chilis are so tiny though, you could easily double their numbers. or add neon green rasboras. But, i think you're probably fine adding some at least. up to 8? all depends on how thick they are

[Odd Duck]

They are tiny but proved very hard to find, very expensive when I did find them in stock, and then they tended to do very poorly during shipping.  I didn’t have much luck getting healthy fish and never got to the point where I had a really good shoal despite ordering 10-20 at a time, more than a couple times.  They would either pass in quarantine or pass before they were available again from any sources.  The males died at a higher rate than the females for some reason.  They were in soft, neutral to slightly acidic water with abundant plants during quarantine and in their show tank.  I had more than one die from being netted. The last time I got some I put them directly into the species specific show tank so they wouldn’t be netted again but they still passed at an alarming rate in the first week, but especially the first 48 hours.

They like tiny live foods and did better when they had live foods available, especially during quarantine when they were freshly imported.  They ate vinegar eels, microworms, and Grindal worms most readily for me.  White worms and blackworms are a bit big for them.  Adult Daphnia magna are big for them but smaller, young Daphnia or other, smaller species are fine.  Baby brine shrimp are fine but they didn’t seem to appreciate them as much as I expected.  They did also take some finely crushed flake and ACO Fry Food.  They tend to hang out high in the tank, fairly close to the surface and I rarely saw them going low and never saw them forage from the bottom of the tank even when they were in water only 10” deep.

They are more transparent than some videos would lead you to believe.  It’s also tricky to get the light just right to show off their iridescence.  They are one of the species called glass tetras.  They have many other names, too, when you do a search under their binomial, Trochilocharax ornatus.

If I could find a reliable source at a less than outrageous price I might try them once more (I told myself this at least 5 times before I finally gave up on keeping them a year or so ago).

If you find the key to keeping them or the right source, please, let me know.