Glowlight Tetra Care Guide: Size, Lifespan, Diet, Tank Mates & Tank Size
Glowlight Tetra is a beautiful freshwater fish species that are easy to care for. If you are thinking of having an aquarium in your home and looking for freshwater fish species to put in, The Glowlight Tetra would be one of the best choices of fish.
I am sure you might start with low-maintenance fish species that are relatively easy to take care of.
In this care guide, we are discussing everything that you need to know about this fish species. Also, we dive into tank setup, tank conditions, tank mates, and dietary information for these species.
If you stick to this guide, I am confident that you might be a good caregiver for Glowlight Tetra. Just continue reading and get answered to all your questions.
| Quick Facts: | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | : Glowlight Tetra, Fire Neon Tetra |
| Scientific Name | : Hemigrammus erythrozonus |
| Family | : Characidae |
| Origin | : Guyana and Essequibo River, South America |
| Care Level | : Easy |
| Lifespan | : 2 - 5 years |
| Size (average) | : 1.5 inches long |
| Diet | : Omnivores |
| Breeding | : Egglayer |
| Social | : Schooling fish |
| Temperament | : Peaceful |
| Minimum Tank Size | : 10 gallons |
| Temperature | : 74 - 82 °F (24 - 28 °C) |
| Water Hardness | : 0 - 15 dGH |
| Water pH Level | : 5.5 - 7.5 |
Overview of Glowlight Tetra
A beautiful combination of beauty, comfort, and low maintenance, Glowlight Tetras is a must-have for all aquariums. Whether a beginner or an experienced fish keeper, Glowlight Tetras is a pleasure to have and fun to watch.
Their transparent color and the vibrant red stripe in between, make you fall in love with this fish species instantly. They are one of the most popular choices amongst so many fish species available as they are not only fascinating but easy to care for and easy to feed as well.
Glowlight Tetra Size
This fish is one of the smallest members of the Tetras species family. It can fully grow up to an average of 1.5 inches long (approximately 4cm). But there are some rare situations it can grow up to 2 inches when providing optimal care with dietary enhancement.
Glowlight Tetra Lifespan
The average life expectancy of Glowlight Tetra is 2 to 4 years, which is a lower lifespan compared to the other fish species in the Tetra family. However, with the optimal caring and conditions, this fish can live up to 5 yeas
Glowlight Tetra Typical Behaviours
Glowlight Tetras is one of the most peaceful species of the Tetra species family. It is schooling fish does best when kept in groups. An idle number of Glowlight Tetras to be put together is at least 5 to 6 of fish.
They are fond of their natural habitat, like the Essequibo River of Guyana, South America, and like spacious places with an environment created as close to their natural habitat. Though they are very active and peaceful nono fish species.
That is why you should not keep Glowlight Tetras with the large fish species because they eventually become their food. Otherwise, they are highly compatible with other fish species of the same size and are one of the most popular choices of addition for a peaceful community tank.
Glowlight Tetra Appearance and Colors
As a fish keeper, it is important to know about the characteristics of fish species you are interested in having in your freshwater aquarium. There are a few characteristics of Glowlight Tetra species that you might think of beforehand as below.
Glowlight Tetra is a small and slender fish that has a semi-transparent body with a bright neon red stripe that starts from its snout to its tail. The front of the dorsal fin also being of the same bright neon red color. The rest of the area of the dorsal fins and caudal fin remain transparent.
With their maturity, the stripes of their body will become more prominent and even more beautiful. Its’ eye-catching appearance gets enhanced further under dim lights when it glows like a lamp. When kept in groups, their beauty and visual effect enhances manifolds.
Glowlight Tetra Care
When it comes to tank conditions and care, it plays an important role that makes your tank species happy and healthy. We need to make the tank environment that mimics Glowlight Tetras’ natural habitat because it makes them feel that they are in the wild.
It will help them to less stress and enhance their life expectancy while being healthy.
Glowlight Tetra Tank Size
The first and foremost thing is to decide upon the size of the tank. Since Glowlight Tetras are schooling fish, they prefer large tank space. In my opinion, you must have at least 10 gallons of tank keep 6 to 8 of them in a school.
Furthermore, if you plan to keep more than 8 Glowlight Tetras you must have a bigger tank. So, in case you are planning to keep around 10 Glowlight Tetras, it is advisable to buy a big 20 gallons tank.
Keep adding 5 gallons per fish accordingly If you thinking of adding more to the school.
Glowlight Tetra Tank Setup
Tank setup is very important when you plan to keep any kind of fish species in your aquarium. You must try to replicate their natural environment in a fish tank for them to thrive well.
The aquarium for the Glowlight Tetras can be decorated with a wide variety of plants. To give them a more natural habitat, cover the tank base with fine sand to give them the feeling of a riverbed.
To provide some hiding place to the Glowlight Tetras such as small rocks and driftwood. If you can go an extra mile then go ahead and add tannins as they will soften and darken the water, where they used to live.
Providing dim lighting is also one good option to enhance their comfort level, which also enhances the appearance of the tank.
Water Parameters
As such Glowlight Tetras is a species that can tolerate a much wider range of conditions in comparison to others. The ideal water temperature that needs to be maintained is 74°F to 82°F, 77°F being the best. Since their natural habitat is more acidic, the pH level should be around 5.5 to 7.5 and water hardness up to 15 dGH.
- Water Temperature: 74 – 82 °F (23 – 28 °C)
- Acidity: 5.5 – 7.5 pH
- Hardness: Up to 15 dGH
Suitable Plants
Since the tanks for Glowlight Tetras are dimly lighted, you can place plants that can easily grow in such an environment. Keeping the following types of plants also acts as good hiding places for the Glowlight Tetras.
- Anacharis
- Anubias
- Brazilian Pennywort
- Christmas Moss
- Cryptocoryne wendtii
- Java fern
- Ludwigia Repens
Diet and Feeding
Feeding your Glowlight Tetra is important to keep them happy, which leads to a healthy life. A timely and well-balanced diet is required for your fish to thrive well.
What Do Glowlight Tetra Eat?
Planning a diet for Glowlight Tetras is an easy task. Since they are Omnivores you have a wide range of options available for them like brine shrimp or daphnia, frozen bloodworms, fish flakes, micro fish pellets, tubifex, etc.
Not only these, but a Glowlight Tetra is also happy eating live food like wingless fruit flies, mosquito larvae, and even plants and vegetable matter. But whatever you give them, should be perfectly balanced and in a size that can be easily swallowed.
How Often Should You Feed a Glowlight Tetra?
So far, we discussed what can be given to Glowlight Tetras, but what is also important is to know how much and how often food needs to be given to them. Ideally, Glowlight Tetras needs to be fed at least 3 to 4 times a day, but be very careful not to overfeed or underfeed them.
The quantity should be able to be finished in not more than 3 minutes. By giving the right food in the right quantity and at the right intervals you can increase the life span of your Glowlight Tetras.
Origin, Distribution, and Availability
Glowlight Tetra is a small silver-colored fish species that has a bright orange stripe extending from its snout to its tail. These fish species are native to tropical water bodies in Guyana and Essequibo River, South America.
They are also found in river basins and surrounding water bodies of Mazaruni River and Potaro River.
Glowlight Tetra is scientifically known as Hemigrammus erythrozonus and is from the Characidae family. They are mostly found where the water is stained dark brown. This is because the decaying material present in the water like the rotten leaves etc that makes it highly acidic.
In 1933, it was the first time that Glowlight Tetras were introduced in the aquarium trade, they were exported from Asia & Germany.
Common Diseases of Glowlight Tetra
The way with any living organism if right care, the right food, or the right living conditions are not provided, they get prone to diseases or infections, be it human beings, animals, and even plants, Glowlight Tetras are no different.
No matter how hardy they might be, even they need a stable environment.
Normally, Glowlight Tetras have the power to resist diseases and the even better thing is unlike the other fish species. The outbreak of any diseases in Glowlight Tetras is limited to only a few and not all of them.
The only thing they need is a proper and hygienic environment and a well-balanced diet.
If you can create an environment that mimics their native habitat, then it’s even better and reduces the chances of diseases. Still, they are not oblivious to infections. The cause of disease may vary like eating dead fish, dirty or overcrowded tanks, or bacteria transmitted through contaminated water.
The common diseases found in Glowlight Tetras are:
- Neon Tetra disease
- Fish or tail rot
- Ick/Ich (Ichthyophthrius) or white spot disease
- Dropsy (Edema)
- Fungus
- Ichthyobodo infection
- Gill flukes
- Popeye (Exopthalmia)
- Lymphocystis
The same can be taken care of by maintaining water parameters and the nitrogen cycle.
How Do You Tell If a Glowlight Tetra is Male or Female?
Before we discuss, how to find out if a Glowlight Tetras is a male or a female, the question that arises in one’s mind is what the use of knowing it in the first place.
Yes, one reason is to know so that can put them accordingly so that they can mate, but there is another lighter reason attached to it. That is if you would not know whether it is male or female, how you will name your favorite pet!
Though both the male and female Glowlight Tetras look almost alike with hardly any difference, it might be difficult but not impossible to judge their gender. So how to go about it?
If your Glowlight Tetras is long with rounded belly chances are that it’s a female Glowlight Tetras. On the other hand, male Glowlight Tetras are slightly shorter in length in comparison to their female counterpart.
Male Glowlight Tetras are also slimmer and have slightly sunken bellies as they don’t lay eggs.
Glowlight Tetra Breeding
Breeding is important for all species and fishes are no different. But the difference is the way they breed and in the conditions they breed. For Glowlight Tetras also needs to be a bit extra careful as they prefer to breed in captivity.
So the first and the foremost step includes creating or arranging for a separate breeding tank for the adult pair.
Ideally, set up at least 10 gallons of a breeding tank with soft water with water hardness less than 6 dGH or less.
In general, also they prefer dim lights but for breeding, they want absolutely no lights, so set up the breeding tank without any lighting. Keeping fine leafed plants and spawning mops also works great to keep the eggs protected once laid.
Once done with this, you are ready to add your adult pair to the specially created breeder tank. And all you need to do is to wait for them to perform their mating ritual.
Female Glowlight Tetra typically lays 100 to 150 eggs in a single breeding cycle. Another important thing that needs to be taken care of is to ensure that the adult pair is removed from the tank once the eggs are released.
This is because Glowlight Tetras are not like the typical parents looking after their eggs, instead, they tend to eat them away. So to protect them from being eaten away, let them remain safe among the aquatic plants placed.
How Many Glowlight Tetras Should I Get in My Tank?
To have a beautiful aquarium and to maintain the health of the fishes it is very important to have the right number of fish. This means the number of fish should be in proportion to the size of the tank or vice versa.
Talking about Glowlight Tetra Fish, they are schooling fish in nature, which means they love to travel together in a similar direction at a similar speed.
So ideally Glowlight Tetra should be kept in a group of at least 6 to 8. Having said that it also means that the size of the tank should be equally big to be able to give them space big enough for their growth and play.
Glowlight Tetra Tank Mates
Speaking of choosing tank mates for Glowlight Tetras!
Since Glowlight tetras are very friendly and non-aggressive, this makes looking for tank mates for them an easy job. One need not think much about choosing its tank mate.
A peaceful fish in itself, it’s a great idea to house them together with other peaceful fishes like:
- Lemon Tetra
- Black Neon Tetra
- Silver Tip Tetra
- Cory Catfish
- Guppies
- Celestial Pearl Danio
- Cherry Barb
Most Gouramis, like the Honey or the Sparkling Gourami, Docile Loaches, like Kohli and Clownfish, are also excellent options.
But when we are talking about the ideal tank mates, we also need to see that the Glowfish Tetra is not harmed in any way. So what is important is to also keep in mind the size of the other fish. One should try and keep similarly sized that are non-aggressive.
This is to ensure that the Glowfish Tetra does not become the food for the larger fish. Especially, like in the case of Angelfish, who tend to eat the little Glowlight Tetra!
Otherwise, the docile nature of Glowlight Tetra makes them an ideal community fish!
Can Glowlight Tetras Live with Guppies?
Birds of the same feather lock together! Same way fishes with the same nature are good to pair together. So if you are thinking about whether Glowlight Tetras and Guppies can live together then just sit back and relax, as they make a perfect tank mate, since both of them are friendly and peaceful.
They both like tanks full of vegetation and life. So they can easily share their tank and live happily in a community tank.
Can Glowlight Tetras Live with Bettas?
Often enough people get confused as to whether or not to keep Bettas along with Glowlight Tetras. It’s true betta get along well with Tetras but not all of them like Serpae Tetras, Bleeding Heart Tetras, Black Phantom Tetras, etc.
But if we talk about Glowlight Tetras, in particular, Glowlight Tetras and bettas make an excellent combo.
Are Glowlight Tetras Fin Nippers?
If you are wondering whether the Glowlight Tetras are fin nippers or not, then this is something you should read.
Yes, not all Tetras are indeed in fin nipping. There are certain tetras that do not nip fins of other fishes, while there are others that do. So it’s always advisable to learn about their nature before mixing them with other fishes.
Like, Serpae tetra, Neon tetra, Black skirt tetra, Emperor tetra, etc are fin nippers.
But if you are planning to keep a Glowlight Tetra at least then you need not worry about any such thing as these fishes do not nips the fins. So you can easily keep Glowlight Tetra with other fishes, like the Betta Splendens.
They do not show any aggressive behavior and gell up with most of the fish quite well.
So just go ahead, and bring them home!
Are Glowlight Tetras Aggressive?
If you are interested in knowing whether the Glowlight Tetras are aggressive or not, or are they friendly, etc., you will be glad to know that are extremely peaceful.
Just like its beautiful looks takes away our hearts, its peaceful disposition acts like a cherry on the cake. Because the Glowlight Tetras are not peaceful but very friendly as well.
Now, the way we might be very friendly but prefer people that are of similar likes and dislikes, similarly, Glowlight Tetra’s prefer to be kept with similar-sized fishes.
In fact, like the other non-aggressive species, like the Erythrozonus, which though belong to the same family, Characidae, but are not a close relative.
It’s a schooling fish in a true sense. And it’s this peaceful disposition of Glowlight Tetra that makes it an ideal companion and the most popular community fish.
Do Glowlight Tetras Glow in The Dark?
Glowlight Tetras are true to their names. As the name suggests, Glowlight, they do glow like a beautiful light, provided the right lighting conditions are provided.
The way a candlelight dinner be enjoyed when the surrounding lights are dimmed, similarly, to enjoy their real beauty and glow, it is suggested to keep the aquarium lights dim.
In fact, to enhance it’s a great idea to keep them in groups. Doing this adds to the visual effect and makes them look even more appealing.
Final Thoughts of Keeping a Glowlight Tetra.
A non-aggressive and friendly fish, Glowlight Tetras, is one of the most popular choices amongst the aquarist, be it an amateur or a veteran. It’s easy to handle and pocket-friendly species that play well with others, hence a great choice for community tanks as well.
Thanks to their docile nature, these fish can coexist with most species. So don’t wait any further, go ahead and bring them in and make your aquarium glow even brighter with Glowlight Tetras!
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