Diamond Tetra

I guess I've never seen a male Diamond Tetra in the LFS since none have had purple or long, flowing fins.

They've all pretty much looked like this one.

Here's some diamond tetras in a tank of mine from 1998. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=702
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Jeff

But as you can see here(http://www.elmersaquarium.com/image_fish/01_Tetra_DIAMOND_male2.jpg), the male has a nice purple sheen and flowing fins.

I read it somewhere that they only show their real potential after they mature.

Raul-7 said:

But ...the male has a nice purple sheen and flowing fins.
I read it somewhere that they only show their real potential after they mature.

Click to expand...

You need to get the long fin varient if thats what you want. Personally I prefer the natural short finned types. When you have them for a while the colors do improve but its not as vibrant as congos. They are some of the most aggresive feeders that I have kept and as such make feeding shy cichlids difficult. My rams did much better when I switched to pencil fish. Also my SAE never ate any fish food off the surface when I had the diamond tetras in. They were effective in keeping my SAE focused on algae duties. Oh yes, almost forgot, diamond tetras do eat some thread algae, small duckweed and HM leaves.
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Jeff