Thayeria boehlkei

Thayeria boehlkei is a species of characin fish endemic to the Amazon river basin and Araguaia river, in Peru and Brazil respectively.[1] The species is popular with aquarium hobbyists where it is traded under a variety of common names including blackline penguinfish, blackline thayeria, hockey-stick tetra, penguin fish and penguin tetra.[1][2][3]

Blackline penguinfish
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Characiformes
Family: Characidae
Genus: Thayeria
Species:
T. boehlkei
Binomial name
Thayeria boehlkei
S. H. Weitzman, 1957

Location and habitat

Thayeria inhabits small streams and the margins of smaller rivers in the lowland Amazon basin, where it is part of the highly diverse Neotropical fish fauna.

Misidentification

The species was previously misidentified as Thayeria sanctaemariae[4] and Thayeria obliqua. T. obliqua is a superficially similar, but different species of Thayeria, while T. sanctaemariae, is a synonym of T. obliqua.[1]

Diet

The species feeds on worms, small insects, flake food and crustaceans.[1]

Reproduction

In captivity, this normally schooling species forms pairs that scatter their many adhesive eggs amongst plants. Clutch size is very large and may be up to 1000 eggs, the embryos of which are black in colour[4][5] The eggs hatch in about 20 hours and are free-swimming after 4 days.[3]

In the aquarium

The species is best kept in groups, to allow the species to school, in tropical freshwater community aquaria with other peaceful, non-predatory fishes.[3][5][6] This fish tolerates a fairly broad range of water pHs, but prefers acidic water for breeding.[6]

See also

References
  1. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2007). "Thayeria boehlkei" in FishBase. Apr 2007 version.
  2. Mills D (1993) Aquarium Fish Harper Collins ISBN 0-7322-5012-9
  3. Axelrod HR, Vorderwinkler W (1995) Encyclopedia of tropical fishes. 30th edition. Tropical Fish Hobbyist Publications, USA.
  4. McInerny D, Gerard G (1958) All about tropical fish. 2nd Edn. George Harrap & Co. London. p. 276-277.
  5. Riehl, Rüdiger. Editor.; Baensch, HA (1996). Aquarium Atlas (5th ed.). Germany: Tetra Press. ISBN 3-88244-050-3.
  6. Axelrod, Herbert, R. (1996). Exotic Tropical Fishes. T.F.H. Publications. ISBN 0-87666-543-1.


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