Candy Cane or HY511 Tetras (Megalamphodus bentosi)

bgarthe

bgarthe

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These Candy cane ….or whatever one chooses to call them….are great little fish. I put them in my 33g long tank with Cardinal Tetras and it came out pretty cool. :) The 9 bentosi tetras get along with the CTs very well and provide a nice complimentary contrast in shape and color along with different swimming zones.

 

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They’re pretty little fish, but I can’t help but wonder how they got the moniker Candy Cane?

I think I was expecting to see stripes to rival a barber’s pole !
 
I kept Candy Canes along with Bleeding Heart Tetras years ago, and really enjoyed them.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep them alive long term, probably due to the hard tap water in my area.
 
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I’m pretty sure all my tetras would not be doing great if I hadn’t been mixing RO into the well tap water making it much softer. Bleeding Heart Tets are pretty as well.

Funny…..for the last several years, I’ve been a Congo and Cardinal Tet guy. In the last year, I’ve come to go crazy for two more….. the Diamond and Candy cane Tetras. Add a couple of Rasboras…Hets and Lambchops with some Yellow Phantom and Red Cherry Tets and I’m good to go.
 
Diamonds have been the most long lived Tetra species I've ever kept.

My last two Diamonds died a few months ago. They were probably six years old.
 

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They look good together and the Bentosi have grown. Are those real plants ?
 
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No, but the wood is real. I gave up on real plants about ten years ago even though there were some I liked.
 
It seems that the majority of fish I like either eat plants or just destroy them for entertainment.

Nothing wrong with fake plants. Lol.
 
No, but the wood is real. I gave up on real plants about ten years ago even though there were some I liked.
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I really like your wood. I thought the plants were fake but the substrate looks like aqua soil so I wasn’t sure. Your plants look good.
 

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Until recently I used resin fake wood, but have taken to using the real stuff since I found a real good source. I did have to soak one batch of wood for weeks prior to putting it in the tank. The best pieces of wood were huge and went into my 75g Congo Tetras tank.

My substrate is that black blasting sand which I’ve come to really like. And…..I don’t have it very deep…..only 3/4” to 1 1/4” deep.
 
If you ever want to add a gnarly wood to your hardscape, look at Spiderwood.

I have three big chunks of it in my main tank. Spiderwood is easily found online and is relatively inexpensive.

Here's a pic of my Salvini making herself at home in the Spiderwood.
 

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They’re pretty little fish, but I can’t help but wonder how they got the moniker Candy Cane?

I think I was expecting to see stripes to rival a barber’s pole !
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What are they called in Canada? Their common name here in Australia is the White Fin Ornate Tetra.
 
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I like that name (White Fin Ornate Tetra) better than the Candy Cane Tetra.
 
The longest lived tetra that I have kept is Arnold’s Red-eyed (Arnoldichthys spilopterus).

I had four of them in my 6 foot tank and they all lived for many years. The female was bigger than the three males. The last male died after 16 years and 5 months.

I liked their large shiny scales and glowing red eyes and very peaceful nature, but they were fairly stationary in my aquarium and did not swim up and down much. They did not like water changes but otherwise they were tough.

I did have a bleeding heart tetra, several neons and cardinals and some head and tail light tetras lived around a half dozen years but I have never being particularly successful with other tetras such as congos which sadly have been relatively short lived for me.

I have used tetras as dither fish for my clown loaches but have harlequin rasboras now and they are the best in my opinion.
 
What are they called in Canada? Their common name here in Australia is the White Fin Ornate Tetra.
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I have never seen them offered so I have no idea what name(s) they might go by here but as a general rule, common names here tend to be the same as those used in the US.
 
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