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The African fin-eating tetras
(Excerpted from: Extreme Characins Part 2: Wolves, vampires, and other
horrors by Neale Monks)
Also known as the African pike-characins,
the genera Belonophago, Paraphago, and Phago
are fascinating subjects for the aquarist after a bizarre
predatory characin but without the space to accommodate something
like a school of vampire-tetras. They are all fairly small
animals, and none is terribly active. The smallest species are in
the genus Belonophago and around 10 cm/4" when fully
grown; the remaining species are about half as big again. Apart
from size differences, telling the species apart isn't easy
as they are all pretty similar. They have a slender, pike-shape
and distinctive tail fins that bear striking horizontal black
bands. These fish are fairly cryptic in their colouration, being
silvery green with some sort of mottling or banding along the
body and on the fins. Given the choice, these fish prefer to stay
hidden among the shadows than in open water, and just like our
own native pike, these fish are stealth predators that will snap
at any suitably sized prey, from aquatic insects through to
smaller fish.
While there are many predatory characins,
these fish are unusual in having scissor-like upper and lower
jaws that can easily snip the fins off fish too large to swallow
whole. Obviously, since they will eat small fish whole and large
fish a bit a time, African pike-characins cannot be easily mixed
with other fish, though heavily armoured catfish such as doradids
and loricariids might be an option.
African pike-characins are members of the
characin family Citharinidae, of which there are numerous species
offered more or less regularly to aquarists. Most make excellent
aquarium fish. Nannaethiops unitaeniatus is sometimes sold
as the African glowlight tetra, an allusion to the attractive
coppery band running along the flanks of this fish that gives it
a superficial resemblance to the popular glowlight tetra from
South America, Hemigrammus erythrozonus. The African
glowlight is a peaceful, schooling species that gets to about 6
cm/2.5" long and does best in a quiet, well-planted aquarium
with soft, slightly acidic water. At the other end of the size
spectrum is Distichodus sexfasciatus, a large, deep-bodied
characin that has, at least when young, the same brilliant orange
and black colouration of the clown loach and tiger barb. Adults
can potentially reach over 70 cm/27" in length, though
aquarium specimens rarely get to even half that size. Adults are
also somewhat less colourful than the juveniles, though
attractive fish nonetheless. These fish omnivores, and will as
readily eat lettuce and peas, as they will bloodworms and brine
shrimp. Needless to say, they will demolish a plant aquarium in
no time at all.
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