Many
species of African tetra have never been photographed alive or kept in
aquaria. So it is often very difficult to determine a species of that
group. We obtained for the first time ever from Lac Mai Ndombe (formerly
known as Lake Leopold) a species of tetra that has wonderful shining
colours in the right light. Most probably the fish belong to the species
Alestopetersius leopoldianus.
Currently
the fish are 6-7 cm long. We expect that they will not grow larger than
9 cm. The fish have an orange coloured longitudinal band, the large
scales of the back and the belly shine blue-green and the dorsal and the
caudal fin have an orange tinge. Sadly it is extremely difficult to
make photos with a flash that show the colours in the right way. So we
decided to add to this introduction of the species, which is new for the
aquarium hobby, two pictures made under natural daylight conditions. Of
course these pictures are a bit unsharp, but they show the very nice
colours of the fish in a correct way.
For our customers: the fish have code 100173 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
