For
almost 50 years, the “Bleeding Heart Tetra” has been
in tanks around the world. Introduced from Columbia and Peru in
1956 as the “Tetra Perez,” it has a part in a number
of minor mysteries. The first of these I suppose is the real name
of the fish. For some years after its introduction it was called
Hyphessobrycon rubrostigma (Hoedeman 1956) but the valid
name was soon determined to be Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma
(Fowler 1943). Both names translate to “red spot”
and refer to the red marking over the "heart" that is
present in all Bleeding Hearts.
There were a couple of other errors made in describing the fish
when it first arrived. Sterba, a well-known and respected ichthyologist
and author of the time, apparently didn’t have the patience
to wait and described them as growing to only about 1.5”.
In reality, Bleeding Hearts are one of the largest tetras and grow
at least 3”. Axelrod, in his loose-leaf edition of Exotic
Tropical Fishes managed to get the size about right but states
they “will spawn readily.” Most sources, fifty years
later, still describe the species as “not yet spawned in aquaria"--
not exactly a "ready spawner" it seems!
The biggest source of confusion, at least for hobbyists, however,
has been the fact that there is not one Bleeding Heart, but three.
At least there are three that are imported and sold under that name.
The latest of these to appear is Hyphessobrycon pyrrhonotus
(Burgess 1993), known usually as the Flameback Bleeding Heart.
The dorsal area of this species can be bright red--hence the name.
These fish occur in the Rio Negro basin of Brazil and in the past
have only rarely been available. Recently, in the past three or
four months, they have been for sale in at least one nearby store
and I have seen them listed on some importers' price lists. If the
bright red color on the back of this fish maintains itself in aquaria,
this fish will probably be more popular than the traditional Bleeding
Heart. To date I have not heard of any captive spawnings.
The third species, sometimes called the Lesser Bleeding heart is
Hyphessobrycon socolofi (Weitzman 1977). Named after the
renowned Ross Cocolof, this fish is found in the Rio Negro basin
of Brazil and has been in the hobby since about 1980.
Especially when smaller, they are easily mistaken for the “normal”
Bleeding Heart, Hy. erythrostigma. I bought my first group
of these fish about twenty years ago as “Bleeding Hearts”
and it was several months before I truly realized that there was
something different about them. At that time there was little information
available in the popular literature but I finally did manage to
identify them and they have been one of my favorite tetras ever
since. In my opinion, a school of adult socolofi is much
prettier than erythrostigma.
Over the years I have kept my eyes open for these fish. I have seen
them on quite a few occasions but always sold only as “Bleeding
Hearts.” In some cases the tanks have contained both species
– likely the result of two different shipments being placed
in the “Bleeding Heart tank.” On more than one occasion
I’ve asked a pet shop employee to pick specific fish for me
from one of these mixes and never has he understood why –
even when I’ve explained that they had two different species
in the tank.
At the size “Bleeding Hearts” are usually sold, the
two species are difficult to differentiate. Probably the best way
(although not a guarantee), to separate them is by the anal fin
pattern. In the normal Bleeding Heart, the white colour in the anal
fin (particularly the make), continues to the bottom of the extended
front rays. In socolofi, this color only runs along the
top of the fin. The dorsal fin of adult male erythrostigma
is also longer. But it’s easy to make mistakes especially
with the normal mid-size pet shop specimens!
Once you have a group of fully-grown socolofi, determining
the sexes is relatively easy. Healthy, well-fed females are noticeably
fuller in the firth than are males. As well as this, the tip of
the male’s dorsal fin is white and that of the female, red.
The same colour difference is found in the anterior portion of the
anal fin.
From the first time I accidentally discovered these fish about twenty
years ago until now, I suppose I’ve had them three or four
times. Each time, for one reason or another, I’ve neglected
to try to breed them. This time I decided I’d better get moving.
A ten-gallon tank was set up with a spawning grid that covered almost
the entire bottom. The grid is a piece of plastic egg crate cut
to size with screening glued to the top. This is the plastic screen
used for needlework and crafts. A couple of sinking spawning mops
were placed on top of the grid. The water was adjusted to about
200 microsiemen with RO water and a pair of socolofi was added.
Temperature was set to 80 F. Lighting was just the normal fish room
fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
The fish were left to their own devices for several days and proceeded
to do nothing. At that point half or more of the water was removed
and replaced with slightly cooler RO water. This resulted in a conductivity
of about 100 ps and the next day the fish spawned.
The adults were removed and the tank covered to keep the light down.
The eggs hatched in two or three days and were free swimming with
no egg sac in another three days or so. Pretty typical for most.
The fry were fed APR mixture and vinegar ells as first foods. I
estimated there were approximately 200 of them and at the time of
writing this seems to have been a reasonably close guess. Water
changes of about half a liter a day were made using local tap water
(300 microsiemen) so that the fry slowly became accustomed to the
water they would live in as adults.
The fry grew very slowly. After about ten days I added microworms
to the diet. They seemed to eat these, especially the variety know
here as “Walter Worms” (don’t ask me why), which
are even smaller than the traditional type. After another week they
were large enough to eat newly hatched shrimp and have grown steadily
ever since. I even had a few Aphyosemion congicum hatch
at about that time and I put them with the tetras. So far they seem
to be doing fine and, as would be expected, have outgrown the socolofi.
As the fry grew and the first of them began to “round out”
and take the shape of the adults, the first marking to appear was
the black spot in the dorsal. At about ten or eleven weeks of age,
the largest of the fry are about three quarters of an inch long
(TL) and the smallest about one quarter. They’ll soon have
to be sorted out to keep them growing.
I’ve wanted to spawn this fish for quite a while and the procedure
turned out to be surprisingly simple. I surmise that the key is
using young, adult fish and water of very low conductivity. The
next attempt, I suppose, is to give Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma
a try.
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