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I was at Petsmart the other day and saw a tank of fish labeled Golden Von Rio Tetras. Anyone heard of these? They look like Von Rio/flame tetras, but they don't have any stripes and they're golden. They almost look like Columbian tetras but their body is yellow, not blue. I looked a little on the internet for them but didn't have any luck.

Last edited by cutiepatutie at 18-Apr-2005 22:42

I can't peg 'em from your description, and I've seen a lot of Tetras. Let us know if you run across any pictures on the Web.

They're coming out with new man-made forms of fish all the time. I've heard of albino lemon tetras (honestly, what a stupid idea), so this might just be a halfway-albino form of the flame (Von Rio) tetra. I'd have to see a picture, but I'm guessing it is the same species of fish.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Hmm. Body shape like a Columbian, but yellow body???

Look up Kitty Tetras - Hyphessobrycon loweae - and see if that matches your yellow fish ...

If you like, I can E-Mail you a pic I've scanned from Today's Fishkeeper illustrating them. They have a somewhat Columbian Tetra shaped body, but are golden yellow. Oh, and males become MUCH brighter than females when mature, and have tall fins almost like male Diamond Tetras. If these fish of yours ARE Kitty Tetras, I'd get them, because they're easy to keep, and relatively easy to breed too. German aquarists are turning them out in industrial batch quantities now!

Almost forgot : read this article for some info on new to the hobby Tetras as of late 2004.


Last edited by Calilasseia at 19-Apr-2005 21:01

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I have never seen these before. They are cool looking though!

FreeBlaze

Lovely-sounding, although I have yet to see any of them in the local fish stores (even the very well-stocked ones). I have started seeing a new Hyphessobrycon, though, which is a more brightly colored version of the Rosy tetra -- including candy-cane-like red and white horizontal bands on its dorsal fin. Nice-looking little fish -- although I haven't bought any yet, being currently entangled with yet another epidemic in the library tank that I maintain.

As for the reason for the outbreak of new fish from Peru, it's very simple: the Shining Path has been wiped out (one good thing Fujimori did for that country, even if he was a scoundrel), and so it's safe for fish collectors to go places in Peru's very large backcountry that they didn't dare go before. I'm also seeing a lot of new fish in the stores from Myanmar: several new Danios of totally different colors; the Angelicus or "polka-dot" loach, and the very pretty glowing green Microrasbora kubotai.

Thanks for the replies!

I still have had no luck in finding anything like the "golden von rio tetras."

They're actually more of an orangey-yellow than the kitty tetra which is more lemon tetra yellow. The von rios fins are orangey-red, and they don't have any black on them, that I can remember.

Thanks for the article Calilasseia, though none sound like what I'm looking for, it was still very interesting.

The candy cane fish sounds awesome Blue! At the petsmart, they also had a fish with leopard in the name that was tan with black spots - it was pretty sweet. It was in with the guppies, but I don't think it was a livebearer. That'd be cool to do a Safari animal themed tank with some of those, some tiger barbs, zebra danios, etc.

It's sounding like these von rios are just a new hybrid that no one's heard of yet. They're very attractive; maybe they'll become more popular in the future.

It's also possible that someone has created what is known as a 'xanthic morph' of the Flame Tetra. Xanthic morphs (the term given to fishes with some melanin missing and extra yellow pigments that distinguish them from albinos, which have totally absent melanin) are available for several fishes, most notably certain African Rift Lake Cichlids. I believe (though I could be wrong here) that there is a xanthic morph of Metricalima zebra that used to be known as an 'apricot' or 'tangerine' morph.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002