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Passport
- Family
- Tetras
- Grows to
- 2 cm (0.8")
- Lives
- 2–4 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Beginner
- Swims
- Mid-water
- Keep
- In a group of 8 or more
- Water
- 20–28 °C (68–82 °F)
Brazil
Care requirements
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On record for Ember Tetra: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 38 L / 10.0 US gal
- pH 5–7
- Hardness 1–10 dGH
- Diet micropredator
- Tank length 45 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Embers are the smallest tetra most shops carry, and they glow. A settled group over dark sand looks like someone scattered coals through the tank, which is where the name comes from and it is not an exaggeration.
They're gentle to the point of being pushed around. Put them with anything boisterous and they'll spend their lives at the back, keeping out of the way and losing the colour you bought them for.
That size makes them one of the few tetras you can properly stock in a small tank. They're also a favourite dither fish for dwarf cichlid keepers, because they hold the upper water, give the cichlids confidence, and won't hunt their fry.
Tank setup
Plant your embers in heavily and go dark underneath them. Colour in this species answers its surroundings faster than almost anything else you'll keep — the same fish over pale gravel is a washed-out beige.
Cover the surface. Floating plants cut the overhead light, and embers spend most of their time in the upper half of the tank where that glare would otherwise sit right on them.
Add leaves and a piece of wood. The tannins suit them, and the microscopic life that grows on decomposing leaf litter is food their fry can actually eat.
Keep the water soft and on the acidic side. They'll tolerate a fair range but they colour up properly at the soft end of it.
Feeding
Embers are micropredators, and that word is doing real work here. In the wild they pick tiny invertebrates out of the water column, and a diet of nothing but dried food keeps them alive without ever getting them into condition.
Feed small live and frozen food most days — baby brine shrimp, moina, grindal worm, cyclops. A fine dried food is a reasonable staple around that, but it shouldn't be the whole story.
Their mouths are minuscule. Almost everything sold as "small" is still too big, so crush it or buy the grade below the one you think you need.
Avoid: standard flake as a staple, and any pellet you haven't checked the size of.
Filtration and flow
Keep the flow gentle. Embers are weak swimmers and come from still backwaters, and a group being pushed around by an outlet will never settle into the open water where you want them.
An air-driven sponge filter is usually the whole answer, and it has the side benefit of not eating anything small enough to get sucked in.
Stability matters more than purity here. They tolerate a wide band of conditions and much less tolerance for that band moving quickly.
With plants
Embers are entirely safe with plants and belong in a planted tank more than most fish do. Nothing gets dug up, nibbled or damaged.
Fine-leaved plants and moss are the ones to prioritise. They give the fish cover to duck into and, if you ever want fry, somewhere for eggs to fall out of reach.
Health
They're hardy once settled, and most problems trace back to the tank rather than the species. Going into an immature filter is the usual killer.
Watch their colour and their position in the tank. A group of embers that has dropped low and gone pale has usually been bullied, startled or hit with a water change that was too big or too cold.
They're small enough that a fish in trouble goes downhill quickly, so act on the first day you notice rather than the third.
Breeding
Embers will spawn in a planted tank without you doing anything, and if the tank is dense enough the odd fry survives to adulthood on its own. That's the easy version.
For real numbers you need a separate tank, dimly lit, with fine-leaved plants, spawning mops or a mesh floor the eggs can drop through. They scatter eggs and eat them afterwards, so the adults come out once spawning is done.
The fry are among the smallest you'll deal with. They need infusoria or a food graded in microns before they can manage baby brine shrimp, and skipping that stage is why most first attempts end with an empty tank.
Tank mates
Avoid11
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Ember Tetra at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Ember Tetra at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Kribensis Kribensis grows to 8 cm against Ember Tetra at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Panda Garra Panda Garra grows to 9 cm against Ember Tetra at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Pictus Catfish Pictus Catfish grows to 12 cm against Ember Tetra at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
Only with care10
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Ember Tetra is peaceful.
- Cherry Barb Cherry Barb is a risk to Ember Tetra: barbs and tetras are a pairing to watch.
- Gold Barb Gold Barb is a risk to Ember Tetra: barbs and tetras are a pairing to watch.
- Odessa Barb Odessa Barb is a risk to Ember Tetra: barbs and tetras are a pairing to watch.
- Paradise Fish Paradise Fish is a risk to Ember Tetra: large gouramis and tetras are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 85 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 2 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.