DREWspective

Albino Corydoras
Corydoras aeneus
max. size: 7cm (2¾ “)

I have two of these guys in my tank at the moment, which are my second set. I originally had three others, but unfortunately they perished for various reasons.

Albino Corys are actually albino versions of Bronze Corys: they’ve been bred for their colour. One source suggests that inbreeding has affected this species, citing blindness and infertility as a couple of their characteristics. Personally, I have no idea.

Like the other similar-looking Cory fish, Albino Corys are bottom-dwellers. They hunt for food at the bottom of the aquarium by smell, aided by their characteristic barbels/whiskers. It’s important to have a smooth, preferably fine substrate if you plan to keep these fish, as their whiskers can be easily damaged. My substrate is pea gravel, and so far I haven’t seen any issues with the Corys.

Corys in general are said to be a good indicator of water quality in an aquarium. You might see them darting to the surface to catch a gulp of air, which is natural. However, if they do it too frequently – and I suppose you can tell if it’s too frequent – then you might want to check the water quality.

Albino Corys, along with their different-coloured counterparts, are very lively and sociable tankmates. They tend to move around very quickly – mine like to swim up and down the sides of the tank – and perform a cute little “sniffing” motion when scouring for food. In low light they tend to lie very still, which has often fooled me into thinking they were dead!

One thing to watch out for: these guys are usually sold at around two or three centimetres long, but the females can grow up to seven centimetres (males up to six and a half). If you’re lucky, you might see some examples of fully-grown Corys in an aquatic shop.

Neon Yellow Rasbora
Microrasbora kubotai
max. size: 2cm (0.8 “)

I can’t go much further without mentioning one of my all-time favourite fish, the Neon Yellow Rasbora. These fish are both colourful and tiny, giving you the perfect excuse to have a boat load of them in your aquarium. Unfortunately they’re very hard to come by and quite expensive: I’ve only seen two places in London that ever had them in stock, and both places ask for around £2.50 per fish.

I first came across these guys by accident in my local Maidenhead Aquatics, and – after choosing between them and Chilli Rasboras – managed to score a good deal.

The great thing about Neon Yellow Rasboras is that they can be kept safely with betta fish. In fact, betta fish get along quite well with rasboras. My late, great first betta fish – named Eksu – was housed in my old “death trap” five gallon tank with two Amano Shrimp and a school of six Neon Yellows.

Provided there isn’t too much green going on in the background, they also give some great colour to the tank. Like with most colourful fish, dark substrate (gravel, sand etc.) and some subtle lighting is good for bringing their colours out.

Silver Hatchet / Common Hatchetfish
Gasteropelecus sternicla
max. size: 6.5 cm (2½ “)

Depending on whether my original Neon Yellow Rasbora survived or not, my Silver Hatchets rank with at least one of my Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish as my longest-surviving fish in the big tank.

I remember the great struggle I had when going to buy the Hatchets. If you follow the guidelines of two inches of tropical fish per gallon, there would have only been enough room in the tank to house one school of fish – and I’d had a hard time choosing between the Silver Hatchets and the Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish.

Silver Hatchets are generally top-dwelling schooling fish, as you can probably guess from their upward-pointing mouths. They primarily feed on bugs on the water surface, which was a major concern of mine as I didn’t know anywhere that sold bugs. I have been assured, and have had proof, that they are just as content with regular fish food.
They also have a reputation for being able to fly out of water! I haven never seen it happen myself, but if the hood is ever off I keep a close eye on them.

The Hatchets are the only top-dwelling fish in my tank, and they never touch the gravel; sometimes they just float in the middle section. This was probably the only reason why they were able to survive the attack of the dragonfly nymphs a while ago.

There was yet another nasty rumour circulated around the Internet: one that made the choice between Silver Hatchets and Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish far more agonising than it ever should be. At least one person claimed that keeping Hatchets in a school smaller than six would lead to stress-related death.

I’m not going to cry bull**** for now, because some people will have different experiences. But I will say one thing: I ended up purchasing three Silver Hatchets and five Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish that day, and I still have those three Silver Hatchets.
What was more surprising was that the Hatchets and Rainbowfish appeared to be schooling with each other; it might have had something to do with them being the larger fish in the tank at the time.

Silver Hatchets make excellent community fish, and as with other schooling fish it helps to have a group of four to six. My three seem to have taken on the role of “mafia bosses”, establishing themselves as the clear rulers of the tank. One of them even tried to eat a catfish pellet, which I attempted to pry from its mouth using a planting tool – it didn’t swim away scared, but it resisted letting go!

I had been tempted to purchase at least one smaller Silver Hatchet (around 2cm big), having seen them in an aquatics shop a couple of weeks ago, but one of them was displaying symptoms of swim bladder problems.

Neon Tetra
Paracheirodon innesi
max. size: 3cm (1.2 “)

Touted as the UK’s most popular tropical fish, if not the most popular in the world, Neon Tetras are probably the most recognisable fish you’ll ever come across. Any aquatic shop worth its salt would have these in stock.

I remember seeing these fish several years ago at a huge pet shop in my local area, when I first wanted to keep fish. Like for most people, what attracted me were their very vivid, almost luminescent colours against a dark watery background. It would be several years later that I’d finally have some of my own.

If there’s any fish you can buy to add colour to your tropical tank, it would be these babies. Even though my aquarium is a mish-mash of watered-down green and brown at the moment, the Neon Tetras really stand out against the other lighter-coloured fish. In a darker environment, perhaps with a dark background and black gravel, they would really shine.

What put me off getting Neon Tetras in the first place was a nasty rumour about them, circulated in parts of the Internet. Some people have said that Neon Tetras are extremely sensitive fish, known to easily die on arrival once bought – maybe 40% of them, or some random percentage, would survive.

I can safely say that – while the rumours might be true for some – I haven’t lost a single one through transporting. As far as I know, they’re all still alive right now.

I had only planned on having a school of 12 Neon Tetras, given that the tank has had crowding issues and had recently recovered from a bacterial infection. However, a very generous lady at Maidenhead Aquatics gave me a few extra the second time around (I don’t know if it was intentional or not), so now I have around a 16-strong school.
And school they do! Since they were introduced to my aquarium they’ve all been swimming closely together, and they provide that much-needed shot of colour. It proves that some schooling fish really are much happier in larger schools, space permitting.

I was hesitant to add Neon Tetras to my aquarium, following the massive loss in the last couple of weeks. For the time being, it was well worth it.