| Black Skirt Tetra | Tropical fish guide |
| Size | 2.5inches or 6 cm |
| Fish Hardiness | Easy to care for |
| Water Temperature | 68 - 84°F or 20 - 29°C |
| Water Ph | 6.0 - 8.5 |
| Water Hardness | 5 - 20 |
| Peaceful or Aggressive | Peaceful shoaling fish |
| Number of same species in tank | Four or more, more is better |
| Community Fish | Yes |
| Sexes | Males are smaller and slimmer with broader anal fins than the females which are larger and round bodied but with smaller anal fins |
| Strata | Middle to bottom |
| Food | Fish flake food, blood worms and brine shrimp |
| Breeding | Fairly easy to breed |
| Breeding temperature | 80 - 84°F or 26.5 - 29°C |
| Other names | Black Tetra and Black Widow Tetra |
| Scientific name | Gymnocorymbus ternetzi |
| Lifespan | 5 years |
Black Skirt Tetra Basics
Appearance
The main colors of this fish is black and a white to silvery color. The top and rear half of the body is darker than the front. Two dark vertical lines run across the front of the body just behind the gills on both sides.
A very distinct characteristic of the Black Skirt Tetra is its anal fin which is very broad and large in relation to its overall body size.
Peaceful or Aggressive
These are fairly active but very peaceful fish. They are at their happiest when you keep them in a shoal of six or eight if you have the space for them. They can however be kept in smaller numbers if you don't have a large aquarium with four of them being the minimum.
Community
Fish The Black Skirt Tetra is an excellent community fish that will live happy for many years with most community tropical fish.
Strata
The middle to lower parts of your fish tank is where they will spend most of their time. They prefer a lot of plant cover in some parts of the tank with open swimming space also being available. Have your lighting dimmed somewhat or cover the surface of the water with floating plants for they are not very fond of direct sharp light.
Feeding
Easy fish to feed. Feed them a basis of flake food or slow sinking tropical bits that is fine enough for them to take in. Supplement their diet with either live or frozen blood worms or brine shrimp.
Breeding
For best results separate a shoal of Black skirts of in a breeding tank. Using a substrate of either course gravel or marbles will make it more difficult for the parents to eat the eggs.
After spawning remove all the adults from the tank to increase your chances for as many eggs as possible to hatch. The eggs will hatch after a day or so and after another three or four days they will become free swimming.
Food
Feed the fry finely crushed flake food for the first couple of days until they can consume larger flakes and smaal bits of blood worms or brine shrimp.
Other names
They are also known as the Black Widow Tetra or just Black Tetra although this name may cause confusion with the Black Neon Tetra which is also sometimes referred to as the Black Tetra.
Lifespan
They can easily reach an age of five years old.