Cardinal Tetra

• GeneralOne of the most exported aquarium fish in the world, out of the Amazon.
• It is told apart from the neon tetra because the red band runs the whole length of its body, from nose to tail, and not just the rear half.
• It is the most important ornamental fish on the world market: it accounts for more than 80% of all aquarium fish exported each year from the Rio Negro.
• Almost every individual in the trade is still taken from the wild, because captive breeding is not commercially viable.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Blackwater rivers of the Orinoco and Negro basins

Sexual maturity

Breeding is concentrated in the rainy season, when the forest floods; the species makes small seasonal migrations upstream or downstream depending on the water level

Gestation / incubation

External fertilisation: the male embraces the female as they swim and releases the sperm along with the eggs. Spawning takes place at dusk during the rainy season

Litter / clutch size

Up to about 500 eggs, simply released into the water with no nest and no parental care; the female releases them in the shaded stretches of the river because they are light-sensitive

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Paracheirodon axelrodi · AquaInfo, ficha Paracheirodon axelrodi · Animal Diversity Web, Paracheirodon axelrodi · Animal Diversity Web · Practical Fishkeeping, ficha del tetra cardenal · FishBase, Paracheirodon axelrodi · AquaInfo

Best time: It lives in the mid-water layer of shaded igarapés and blackwater rivers of the upper Orinoco and the Rio Negro, rich in tannins and strongly acidic (pH 4.0-6.0), in shoals that in their natural setting reach several thousand individuals

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.