Tag Archives: Carnegiella

Carnegiella strigata-vesca

24. August 2022

The marble hatchetfish (Carnegiella strigata) is the ideal aquarium fish. It remains small (4 cm), is peaceful and has an interesting coloration. The species is widely distributed in South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, Peru and Suriname) and common. That is why it is almost always found in the offer of the ornamental fish trade. 

In the different distribution areas the marble hatchetfish looks different. In the past several subspecies were described, so fasciata from Brazil (Tabatinga), marowini and surinamensis from Suriname and vesca from Guyana. At present, however, the subspecies are not recognized. Perhaps the most beautiful, because most contrasting variant comes to us from Peru and is called “vesca” in the trade.

Hatchetfishes are somewhat skittish during acclimation and should never be kept with rowdy species. Ideal is a combination with bottom fish like corydoras catfish. When feeding, make sure that the animals only take food from the surface. Dry food is a good nutritional basis, but for breeding you have to put a little more effort and feed small insects like fruit flies. The sexes are not distinguishable externally, but females grow slightly larger and are plumper around the middle at spawning time.

For our customers: the fish have code 214304 on our stock list. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesalers.

Thoracocharax stellatus, Gasteropelecus maculatus JUMBO, Carnegiella myersi, Carnegiella strigata

26. July 2019

The platinum hatchetfish, Thoracocharax stellatus, is regarded as biggest species of the hatchetfish. In the scientific literature, up to 6.8 cm of standard length (without tail fin) are indicated for the species. However, much smaller animals are always imported. The specimens that we currently offer as “large” have a standard length of about 3.5-4 cm.

Thoracocharax stellatus is mostly imported from Colombia. From there we have now received Gasteropelecus maculatus, which can compete in size with Thoracocharax. They have about 6 cm standard length, so with caudal fin almost 7 cm. G. maculatus is very similar to Thoracocharax, mainly because of the dark base of the dorsal fin and was placed at times in the genus Thoracocharax, indeed.

From Peru we have the smallest of all hatchet belly fish in stock, the glass or dwarf hatchet Carnegiella myersi. Large females of this species reach only 2.2 cm standard length, males are even smaller. 

If you read these numbers, the differences may not seem so big, but if you can see the animals together – wow! It’s especially funny when a tiny male Carnegiella is displaying in front of a specimen of G. maculatus, which must appear to him as a “super woman”…

For this post we have also made pictures of the probably most famous and popular of all hatchet fishes, the marble hatchet (Carnegiella strigata), together with the jumbo maculatus. The marble hatchets are already fully grown.

For our customers: T. stellatus “lg” has code 297003, G. maculatus “Jumbo” 254207, C. myersi 214102 , and C. strigata 214203 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Black winged dwarf hatchets

11. March 2017

There are two species of Black winged dwarf hatchets recognized. These charming little creatures hardly reach 3 cm in length. From Peru and Colombia we get occasionally Carnegiella schereri. The fish, however, are usually sent under the name of „Gasteropelecus sternicla, size small“. In fact both species have a very similar coloration, but C. schereri lacks, like all species of Carnegiella, the adipose fin, which is always present in species of Gasteropelecus.

From Brazil we get Carnegiella marthae. Both species of dwarf hatchet are so closely related that in former times they were considered only as subspecies to each other. In that case they were named Carnegiella marthae marthae and Carnegiella marthae schereri. Both species can easily distinguished by the coloration. C. schereri has always a spotted belly, in C. marthae the belly is striped.


For our customers: Carnegiella schereri has code 214152, C. marthae 214002 on our stocklist. Please note that we are supplying the wholesale trade only.

Text & Photos: Frank Schäfer