Kerry fish. Description of aquarium fish

Kerry (purple neon) lives in the upper reaches of rivers South America, for example in Brazil (Madeira River and its tributaries). Belongs to the characin family.
The Kerry's body is elongated, moderately high, slender, laterally flattened. The abdomen is whitish. The fins are transparent, rich yellow. The male's adipose fin is azure. In the female, the brown coloration of the back extends on the side to the longitudinal stripe. The fins are transparent, yellowish. The female's adipose fin is brownish-red. There is a dark blue wide longitudinal stripe on the side of the Kerry. Body length up to 4 cm, lives in aquariums up to 3-5 years. Kerry females are smaller than males and slightly paler in color. It is very similar to neon, which is why its other name is purple neon. The Kerry also has physical and biological similarities to the Royal Tetra.

Peaceful, mobile, schooling fish. It lives in the upper and middle layers of water and loves to frolic in algae. The size of the aquarium for a Kerry is from 50 liters, for a general aquarium where she will live with other fish - 100 liters. The water temperature in the aquarium is 23-26°C (soft or medium hard), aeration, filtration and weekly water changes are required, plants are desirable. Kerry gets along well with most people peaceful fish, it will look great with all characins. You can feed it with live, dry, or combined food; it takes food from the surface of the water, and actively eats daphnia and bloodworms. Kerry is bred quite well at home; for spawning, it is best to place a pair or several pairs in a separate container; after spawning, the parents must be placed in the main aquarium, the incubation period is 20-30 hours, the fry swim in 5-7 days, the starting food is Artemia and "living dust" The fish grow quickly and become fully sexually mature by six months.

These fish come from Brazil, in particular, their habitat is the Aritsuanan River. I would like to immediately note that Kerry Inpaichts are very unpretentious, and therefore are an ideal option for beginner aquarists and other lovers of home aquariums.

Slender light bluish males are amazingly beautiful; as a rule, they are slimmer than females and shimmer with bluish shades when reflected light hits them. Their terminal anal fin is presented in the form of a rounded shape.

Female Kerry Inpaichts have a more rounded abdomen and are colored yellow-brown. The anal fin of females appears pointed at the end.

Also, one of the differences between males and females of Kerry inpaichts can be confidently attributed to their adipose fin. Males have a bluish fin, while in females it is mixed with reddish colors.

In aquarium conditions, these fish reach a length of up to five centimeters and live for approximately four years.

Peace-loving Kerry Inpaichts keep in packs, and therefore it is better to keep them in numbers of at least six to eight pieces. In schools, fish feel much more comfortable, look great and become less timid.

It is very important to choose right choice lighting angle, because sometimes, in the rays of light reflection, fish can shimmer with beautiful lilac shades. Particular emphasis should be placed on side lighting, then the fish will begin to stand out due to the increasing contrast.

The character of males is unchanged. Every now and then, being close to the females, they remain at different angles, clearly demonstrating their beauty to them, which can also please the observer.

Kerry fish inpaicht can easily be kept both in a separate aquarium and in general, in the vicinity of other peace-loving underwater inhabitants.

It is very good if the fish adjacent to them are comparable in size to the Kerry Inpaicht. The volume of the aquarium tank should be fifty or more liters, and have a length of fifty or more centimeters. A flock of six Kerry Inpaichts will feel comfortable in such a space.

In addition to its size, the aquarium should be planted quite densely with vegetation, including floating plants, as well as provide free space for the school to swim. Mostly fish choose the middle and upper layers of the water space of the aquarium, where they spend most of their time.

For proper maintenance of Kerry Inpaicht, pay attention to the water parameters, they should be as follows:

Temperature 23-25°C;

Rigidity dH from 4 to 18° degrees;

The pH acidity balance should correspond to a reading of 6.5-7.5;

Filtration required;

Aeration;

Daily replacement clean water approximately 1/5 of the total volume of the aquarium.

Strictly follow the feeding dosage, since Kerry Inpaichts are very prone to overeating. The diet may include various foods: dry, live, frozen. Overall, in proper nutrition For fish, food of animal origin should predominate.

From time to time, it is necessary to feed them with plant foods, in the form of flakes. Kerry Infants love to feast on various small insects, and when hunting for them, they can jump out of the water quite quickly. Take this feature of your pets into account and cover the aquarium with a lid.

Reproduction of Kerry inpaicht

By the fourth month of its development, the Kerry Inpaicht reaches the period of sexual maturity. It is advisable to start breeding fish around the six-month development period.

These fish, without exaggeration, among all their species, are among the easiest to breed. Certainly, even the most untrained aquarist can easily obtain fry from Kerry Inpaichts. For the spawning of one pair of fish, even a small aquarium of five liters will do.

Observe the water parameters in the aquarium necessary for spawning:

Temperature from 24 to 28° C;

Hardness dH one to two degrees (to achieve the required hardness, use melt or rain water, pre-filtered with a carbon filter);

Acidity pH – 6.0-6.5;

Water level up to 15 cm.

For fish spawning would be better suited the lighting is of medium intensity, and bushes with small leaves will serve as the caviar substrate.

Family Characidae.

Area: Brazil.

Water temperature: 24-27.

Acidity: 6.5-7.5.

Hardness: 1-12°H.

Aquarium volume for a small flock: from 70 liters.

Purple neon kerry (Inpaichthys kerry) has the abbreviation INPA in its name, which stands for Brazilian Institute for the Study of the Amazon. The fish lives in the upper reaches of the Rio Aripuana River.

At first glance, Kerry is very reminiscent royal tetra(Nemaioerycon palmery). This similarity gave the fish a second name - false royal tetra or blue emperor.

The fish were brought to Russia back in 1979 from Czechoslovakia by the famous Moscow aquarist V. Potapov. He managed to breed them, and a little later presented them at a citywide aquarium exhibition.

IN natural habitat They live in running water, the hardness of which is 1-2°, pH 6-6.8, temperature 24-27° C.

Fish easily adapt to aquarium conditions and live well in water with hardness up to 12°, pH 6.5-7.5, at a temperature of 24-27 C.

They are unpretentious in feeding - they eat both dry and live food. Feeding aquarium fish OK must be correct: balanced, varied. This fundamental rule is the key to the successful keeping of any fish, be it guppies or astronotuses. The article talks about this in detail, it outlines the basic principles of the diet and feeding regime for fish.

Sexual dimorphism is not very clear. The male is slimmer than the female. The color is bright blue with a purple tint, the adipose fin is pale blue. The female is more angular, the abdomen is noticeably pronounced. Its color is duller, yellow-brown tones predominate, the adipose fin is red or orange-brown. Maximum size 5 cm, usually 3-4 cm. Maximum productivity - 350 eggs per spawning, on average about 200. Eggs are glued to plants. The caviar is small, about 1 mm in diameter. The embryos that hatch after 18 hours (at a temperature of 26-28°C) are about 1.5 mm long. TO independent life The larvae transition when they reach a length of 2.5 mm. At this time, they greedily pounce on any small food: rotifers, Artemia nauplii, etc. The juveniles grow quickly. Already at four months of age, the fish become sexually mature.

All of the above is just the fruit of observing this type of aquarium fish and collecting various information from owners and breeders. We would like to share with visitors not only information, but also with live emotions, allowing you to penetrate the world of aquariums more fully and subtly. Register on, participate in discussions on the forum, create profile topics where you will talk about your pets in the first person and first-hand, describe their habits, behavior and content, share with us your successes and joys, share and learn from experience others. We are interested in every bit of your experience, every second of your joy, every awareness of a mistake, which makes it possible for your comrades to avoid the same mistake. The more of us there are, the more pure and transparent drops of goodness there are in the life and everyday life of our seven billion society.

Purple neon kerry

Originates from the upper basin of the Madeira River - largest influx Amazons. Lives in numerous river canals and streams flowing among tropical forest. The water is opaque, very acidic (pH below 6.0), colored light brown due to the high concentration of tannins and other tannins released during the decomposition of organic matter (leaves, branches, tree fragments, etc.).

Brief information:

• Aquarium volume - from 70 l.
• Temperature - 24–27°C
• pH value - 5.5–7.0
• Water hardness - soft (1–12 dGH)
• Substrate type - sand
• Lighting - dim
• Brackish water - no
• Water movement - weak/moderate
• The size of the fish is up to 3.5 cm.
• Food - any food
• Temperament - peaceful, calm
• Maintain a flock of at least 8–10 individuals

Description

Adults reach a length of about 3.5 cm. A wide horizontal dark stripe runs along the body, the color is blue with a purple tint. Males are brighter colored than females, which often have a modest brown and yellowish tint. Due to the similarity in coloring, it is often confused with the Royal or Imperial Tetra, and the almost identical name adds to the confusion.

Nutrition

Accepts all types of popular dry, frozen and live foods. A varied diet, consisting, for example, of flakes, granules in combination with bloodworms, daphnia, etc., contributes to the manifestation of more bright colors in the color of fish.

Maintenance and care, arrangement of the aquarium

A flock of 8–10 fish will require a tank with a volume of at least 70 liters. In the design I use a sandy substrate with numerous shelters in the form of driftwood or other decorative elements, dense thickets plants that can grow in dim light. To simulate natural water conditions, dried fallen leaves, oak bark or cones are immersed in the bottom. deciduous trees. Over time, the water will turn a characteristic light brown color. Before placing the leaves in the aquarium, they are first washed with running water and soaked in containers until they begin to sink. A filter with peat-based filter material can enhance the effect.
A different design or its complete absence is quite acceptable - an empty aquarium, however, in such conditions, the Purple Imperial Tetra will quickly turn into a gray, inconspicuous fish, losing all the brightness of its color.
Maintenance boils down to regular cleaning of the soil from organic waste(excrement, leftover food, etc.), replacing leaves, bark, cones, if any, as well as weekly replacement of part of the water (15–20% of the volume) with fresh water.

Behavior and Compatibility

Peaceful schooling calm fish. They react poorly to noisy, overly active neighbors such as Barbs or African red-eyed Tetra. Kerry is perfectly compatible with other South American species, such as small Tetras and catfish, Poecilobricon, Hatchetfish, and rasboras.
This species has an undeserved reputation as a fin nipper. The Purple Tetra does have a tendency to damage the fins of its tankmates, but this only happens when it is kept in small group up to 5–6 individuals. If you maintain a large school, the behavior changes, the fish begin to interact exclusively with each other.

Breeding/reproduction

The appearance of fry is possible even in a community aquarium, but their number will be very small and will decrease every day if they are not transplanted into a separate tank in time. In order to increase the chances of survival and somehow systematize the reproduction process (spawning was not spontaneous), it is recommended to use a spawning aquarium, where adult fish are placed during the mating season.
Usually this is a small container with a volume of about 20 liters. The design is arbitrary, the main emphasis is on the substrate. In order to protect the eggs from being eaten, the bottom is covered with a fine mesh net, or with small-leaved plants or mosses (for example, Java moss). An alternative method is to place a layer of glass beads with a diameter of at least 1 cm. The lighting is dim; a heater and a simple airlift filter are sufficient equipment.
The stimulus for the beginning of the mating season is a smooth change in water parameters in the general aquarium to the following values: pH 5.5–6.5, dH 1–5 at a temperature of about 26–27°C. The basis of the diet should be frozen or live food.
Watch the fish carefully; soon some of them will become noticeably rounder - these are females swollen with eggs. Prepare and fill the spawning aquarium with water from the community aquarium. Place the females there, the next day a couple of large males that look the most vibrant.
All that remains is to wait for spawning to occur; its end can be determined by the females, they will “lose a lot of weight”, and eggs will be noticeable among the vegetation (under the fine mesh net).
The fish are returned back. The fry will appear within 24–48 hours, and after another 3–4 days they will begin to swim freely in search of food. Feed with specialized microfeed.

Fish diseases

A balanced biosystem of an aquarium with suitable conditions is the best guarantee against the occurrence of any diseases, therefore, if the fish’s behavior, color, or unusual spots and other symptoms have changed, first check the water parameters, and only then proceed with treatment.

The aquarium fish blue tetra Kerry appeared in Europe as if from nowhere. Czech aquatic botanist Karel Rattay brought a large collection of living aquatic plants from South America. Along with them, several eggs of this charming fish from a Brazilian river with beautiful name Igarape de Pista de Pongo. Among the brought floristic trophies, K. Ratay discovered 9 tiny fry, which gave rise to the European population of the blue kerry tetra. There is no doubt that in subsequent years there were other, targeted imports of this attractive characinka to Europe. And the ease of breeding Kerry has led to its widespread use in amateur aquariums.

Photo of blue tetra kerry

Already at the first acquaintance with the blue tetra Kerry, one notices the amazing similarity of its color with the well-known and long-popular royal tetra Nematobrycon palmeri. Because of this, Russian aquarists dubbed the Kerry a false royal tetra.

I somehow don’t like it when they try to double different, even unrelated, but similar in appearance fish, calling one of them false. We have heard of a whole series of such innocent “false” fish. It seems that such a name should immediately evoke disdain and prejudice towards them as some kind of falsehood or fake. Why do we offend beautiful fish? Already better second the name that was spread by someone’s hand is “purple neon,” although Kerry is not neon at all, and its color is by no means purple.

For German fanciers, the Kerry tetra is the royal tetra (Kenigtetra), and the palmeri is the emperor tetra (Kaisertetra)! This is respect!

Only very popular fish come under close observation and are subjected to persistent,
careful selection by amateurs. They are often bred in large numbers, they note the attractive color metamorphoses that arise due to some imbalance in the fish genes, and they try to fix the most attractive and promising of them. The same fate was in store for Kerry.

Over thirty years of continuous reproduction, amateurs have identified interesting deviations (mutations) in color, which were fixed and replicated many times. Today I know two of them: Tetra Kerry Super Blue, i.e. "super blue", and Goldpink carry - "gold-pink" (or "rose-gold").
Both are periodically put up for sale by the German company Glaser, which specializes in rare species of aquarium fish. Some information about these kerry can be obtained on the Internet or from Moscow aquarists who have already had some experience with “purple neons”.

Photo of blue tetra kerry female

When I became interested in these fish, the first thing I did was ask my friends. Some interesting details have emerged. It is believed, for example, that the super blue Kerry tetra, a fish very capricious and delicate, dies easily, and the pink-gold one is so unattractive (as they sometimes say, “not at all”) that it is not particularly advisable to engage in it.

Amateur aquarists, for the most part, are generally unpractical people, and they don’t care about other people’s mistakes. So I decided to confirm this axiom by finding own experience. However, by that time the pink-gold carry had disappeared from Glasera's sale, and I had to limit myself to the super blue one.

And on March 3, 2010, I received 20 pieces of Kerry’s super blue tetras Inpaichthys kerri Super Blue from Germany.
One Czech website posted photographs of schools of these fish in large aquariums. In the flocks, entirely azure, sky-blue males and dark, blackish females were clearly visible. I expected something similar from my purchase. However, the fish that arrived did not look super blue, but black. It took a detailed examination to find out whether the individuals in my flock were of different sexes.

Kerry fish are restless, active, and it turned out to be quite difficult to discern the difference.

DESCRIPTION OF TETRA KERRY

It turned out the following. Male Kerry blue tetras are slightly larger, their blackness gives off a dark violet (that's purple neon for you!) or thick blue, which is better visible from above, while the female is simply black or black-gray. The fins of males are colored as follows: dorsal - dark gray or smoky black, anal - with redness (dark brick), fatty - slightly azure. The bellies of both sexes are milky white.

Like regular tetras, the Kerry tetra's coloration is highly dependent on the position of the light source. Fish look most advantageous in side lighting, and worst of all in overhead lighting, that is, exactly the kind that is practiced in modern aquariums. And again the similarity of color with palmeri was revealed, this time with the so-called “black”, or Nematobrycon amphiloxus.

Without postponing reproduction until later, I selected three pairs and placed them in pre-prepared spawning tanks with soft, slightly acidic water and bunches of Java moss, and placed the rest in a 35-liter whole glass jar without soil and also with a large bunch of moss. All aquariums were equipped with box-shaped sponge filters.

Then things didn't go according to script. Kerry tetras did not spawn in the spawning grounds after a week. The male beat one of the females to death. I tried to express eggs from females - almost nothing happened (I was afraid of injuring them).

I left two males (selected ones!) together in a 15-liter spawning tank, and reunited the females with the flock.
Almost immediately, unpleasant white spots appeared on the backs of several specimens (in front of the fin). It soon became clear that this was something like an epidemic, which at first spread only among males, and in all of them this infection arose in the same place already mentioned.

TETRA KERRY DISEASE

The Kerry tetra disease was most similar to that caused by the bacteria Flexibacter columnaris. This pathogenic organism is not scary for strong individuals, but overcrowding and poor maintenance contribute to its massive development.

Considering the speed of manifestation of the disease, one must think that the fish brought this disease with them.
After 2-3 days, ulcers and saprolegnia appeared in place of the white spots (secondary fungal disease, which occurs on dead tissue).

Photo of Kerry tetra sex marker

In addition to clean, fresh, daily-changed water, I used medications in the recommended doses: Biseptol, Bactopur and Mycopur (SERA), but I was unable to overcome the disease, and the bulk of the super blue kerries died by the middle of the second month.

Attempts to keep infected fish separately did not help either. Three specimens survived, having lost all mating interest by that time, most likely due to the consequences of the disease.

In this sad story, meanwhile, there is a bright and at the same time somewhat mysterious and incomprehensible page. Kerry, refusing to spawn in randomly selected pairs, already on the third day began to spawn in a flock and continued to spawn, not paying attention to the disease, literally “to the last”!
The “fighters” dropped out one after another, meanwhile, every evening I collected 30-50 eggs from under the bars, of which, unfortunately, only about 10% survived. Either it was the disease that affected the parents, or it was a sign of the obviously general degeneration of the species due to its mutation.

It was obvious that all the fish that arrived from Germany would gradually die, and one could only hope that they would have time to create a new home school.
The incomprehensible thing about this story was that the surviving fry did not perceive their parents’ illness in any way, showed a good appetite and grew at a normal speed.

Signs of coloring appeared at one month of age in the form of a black longitudinal stripe. Since the entire spawning period lasted for 1.5 months, fry of different ages were raised together, and they had to be fed taking into account their size, but in general the main food was Artemia nauplii with the addition of brackish water rotifers home breeding and slipper ciliates.

SPAWNING OF THE KERRY TETRA

In the epic with blue kerry tetras, as you can see, I used schooling prolonged spawning, when the pair is not selected by the aquarist, but is formed randomly by fish ready for spawning.

The conditions for such spawning of the Kerry tetra depend on the size of the spawning flock. For “volley” (paired) spawning, a small container of 10-12 liters can be used; this space is usually enough for breeders, but given that a good female can lay more than 350 eggs (I have not observed this in super blue kerries) and if the outcome is favorable, in this case only 30 ml of water will be needed per fry, then it is better to take a breeder more.

Photo of a juvenile Kerry tetra

As a spawning substrate, Kerry needs bushes of small-leaved plants (or moss), squeezing through the thickets of which, characins spawn eggs in portions of 3-10 pieces. Spawning water: 0.5°dGH, 0.4-0.5°dKH, pH 6.2-6.8 at a temperature of 26-28°C.

The blue kerry tetra spawns at any time of the day, but most often in the very early hours, in low light.
The spawners planted in the evening spawn the next day or the next day.

According to my observations, in calm water spawning occurs with difficulty or fails altogether, while intense blowing provokes it: Kerry likes to feel the flow of water, which makes them move. To create a flow, you can place a low-power, approximately 2 W, water pump at the bottom and direct its flow along the bottom.

When the Kerry tetra spawns in a common aquarium as part of a flock, the leading male takes a comfortable position near a small-leaved bush or a voluminous tuft of moss and waits for a ready female, energetically driving away competitors. Of course, the water in the container must correspond to spawning parameters, and a protective mesh must be placed at the bottom.

Obviously, it is not necessary to wait until the end of spawning, but simply at the end of the day, use a siphon tube to collect the laid eggs from under the grate, and at the same time the accumulated debris. As a last resort, the eggs can be sucked directly through the grate without lifting it. Then select healthy eggs from the sludge (through the light) and transfer them to a separate container with water from the spawning tank.

Hatching occurs 18 hours after spawning, and after 98-122 hours the larvae enter the juvenile stage and begin to feed.

Kerry tetras during spawning they lay very small eggs, and the hatching larva is also very miniature: the diameter of the egg is 0.95 mm, the length of the newborn at the moment of emergence from the shell is 1.7 mm.

Saves the situation in an extraordinary way fast growth fry: before they start swimming, they manage to almost double in size due to the yolk sac. These rates will continue. Maturity of regular carries at favorable conditions maintenance begins after four months. Their super blue relatives also mature at the same time.

Feeding juvenile Kerry tetras is not difficult; a fish that has started swimming after a day of taking starter food (ciliates, rotifers, cyclops larva) is capable of swallowing even an Artemia nauplius. Juvenile Kerry are inactive, hiding in the vegetation until color appears, then their activity increases and the fry rise to the upper layers.

Photo of blue tetra kerry

Nursing the fry has no special features. And the endurance of young carries is indirectly confirmed by the following fact, told to me by V. Miloslavsky, to whom, as usual, I handed over the fish to prepare illustrations for this article.

This time the subjects of photography were a pair of breeders I had selected and several Kerry larvae. At the end of the shooting, Vladimir returned the “waste material” to me, and then drained the water from the container in which the fish were located during the photo session, almost to the ground level, turning off, of course, the heating pad and the lamp.

When, a month later, the vessel was needed to photograph the next batch of fish, it contained an almost centimeter-long, completely healthy fry, which thus successfully withstood the temperature changes inevitable in such conditions (it was spring with its unstable weather) and a meager diet, consisting exclusively of a self-reproducing population of benthic microorganisms, and even forced to be content with not open water, but pathetic puddles left in the gravel pits.

I. VANYUSHIN Mytishchi, Moscow region.

Aquarium Magazine 2010 No. 5