Raccoon Tetras (Hyphessobrycon Procyon)

Does anyone have experience with the Raccoon Tetras? One of the shops near me has these and they are an amazing looking fish, but I can't find much info on them.

Would they be okay in a tank with Roseline Sharks, Serpae Tetras, and a red tail shark? And are these a rare fish for a store to have? Need to get some soon if so. Thanks

 

I have never seen them that i know of. I haven't had problems with other tetras with serpaes, but sometimes that depends on school size.

Edit: ok a quick google search, they do look pretty cool! What brief writeup i saw is that they are rare in the hobby and considering most of the prices i seen ranged from $12-15 per fish or more, that woukd support that some.

 

Yes definitely a rare species to find! Probably a unique opportunity. I can't imagine that there would be any problems with your existing fish, provided you get a reasonable group size. Are they expensive?

 

Yes definitely a rare species to find! Probably a unique opportunity. I can't imagine that there would be any problems with your existing fish, provided you get a reasonable group size. Are they expensive?

I bought 8 of them for $15 each. I had to

 

Hyphessobrycon procyon, These were identified in like 2016, it's why they are rare in the hobby, And, there's a good chance they are wild caught specimens. They are only found in Brazil, Rio Aripuanã.

I'd think it will look best with pH of 6.0 -6.5 for color and fin growth, like where it's from,so if you notice ragged fins or poor color, you might want to head south on the pH.
and turn the lights down if they get stressed, they come from sort of murky stained water and might be light sensitive or agitated if the light is too bright.

There's a good chance they are wild caught specimens but might be hobby bred at this point and a little less "stressy" than the wild ones are.

these guys get spooked by larger fish and can get stressed, you just don't want tankmates that are much bigger than they are with them. similar size or smaller is fine, nobody nippy which will just keep their fins trimmed back and in rough shape.

 

Post some pictures when they are settled in..

 

Hyphessobrycon procyon, These were identified in like 2016, it's why they are rare in the hobby, And, there's a good chance they are wild caught specimens. They are only found in Brazil, Rio Aripuanã.

I'd think it will look best with pH of 6.0 -6.5 for color and fin growth, like where it's from,so if you notice ragged fins or poor color, you might want to head south on the pH.
and turn the lights down if they get stressed, they come from sort of murky stained water and might be light sensitive or agitated if the light is too bright.

There's a good chance they are wild caught specimens but might be hobby bred at this point and a little less "stressy" than the wild ones are.

these guys get spooked by larger fish and can get stressed, you just don't want tankmates that are much bigger than they are with them. similar size or smaller is fine, nobody nippy which will just keep their fins trimmed back and in rough shape.

Thank you for this info! I was told they are Tank raised. Also, when I got them from the store they were bright yellow and looked amazing. They have been in my tank for only 3 days now and I don’t see the bright yellow yet. Maybe it takes all fish a little bit more time than that to settle in a new tank to get their colors? I’m not sure. But I’ll definitely take all the info above into consideration while monitoring them.

I have 15 serpae tetras and their colors look great with the lighting I have. I have the Hygger Planted 24/7 light on the lowest setting. Feel free to suggest any other lights that are perfect for the tetras in my tank

 

Also, I did test my PH levels and it is quite high. Does anyone know the quickest and most efficient way to lower ph? It’s a planted tank with driftwood

 

Also, I did test my PH levels and it is quite high. Does anyone know the quickest and most efficient way to lower ph? It’s a planted tank with driftwood

How high is high? You can add botanicals, like Indian almond leaves, alder cones, catappa leaves.
I let them sit it warm water for a few hours then add them once they’ve cooled.

 

How high is high? You can add botanicals, like Indian almond leaves, alder cones, catappa leaves.
I let them sit it warm water for a few hours then add them once they’ve cooled.

It looks like it’s around 7.8. And the tetras I mentioned above to do not have that yellow color at all

 

Do you know the parameters of the water they were kept in previously? Aquarium Glaser (usually reliable) says: "They are easy to keep tetras, which have no special demands on water and food. For optimal color and fin development soft, slightly acidic water (pH 6 – 6.5) is favorable, as well as secondary plant matter (peat, dead leaves, alder cones)."

Adding botanicals won't change the pH significantly, if at all, especially if you have high KH, but does provide a nice background and is good for soft water fish in general. Do you know the water hardness and TDS ?- these might be actually more important than pH. If you need to, the best way to lower pH is to use partly RO water or rain water. I don't have any experience of this personally as my water is very soft, but from what I have read it is not a good idea to use chemical pH down products.

If at the shop they were kept in the same water conditions it may just be the stress of moving. My ruby tetras were virtually colorless when they arrived and took a while to become pink. I have no idea about how different lighting could affect this, except that I suspect low light, or shading with floating plants would be best. Very bright light could wash out colours.

 

I asked around with some free time since I have quite a few shops and farms and breeders around me. What I was told by a few people is that they are a lot like neon tetras, stability is the key to health and regular water changes are a must to keep everything nice and stable.
parameters are:
temperature should be between 75 and 80°F, (they have a smaller ideal temp range window than neon tetras do)
pH between 6.0 and 7.0 (ideally 6.5 for optimal fins and color)
ammonia and nitrite always at 0 ppm, nitrate kept below 20 ppm, and a water hardness no more than 10 dGH.
I was told the pH can be higher or lower than the ideal pH range but they won't look as good as they could if it's out of range, they will live and should adjust/acclimate as long as it's not a big difference all at once and even then can acclimate to just the pH, but they won't "be all they can be" being kept out of pH range.
Also told like if pH is out of range, then GH is off and high, or temperature low or too high, these all have a cumulative effect, and you wouldn't want all parameters to be out of range the fish would look poorly, survive still probably, but also probably live a much shorter life in poor physical condition from stress.

I was also told they can be bred using the same methods as neons. they tolerate the pH going lower quite easy and a pH of 5.5-6.0 should work for spawning, but the higher out of pH range is bad.

Best of luck!

 

Do you know the parameters of the water they were kept in previously? Aquarium Glaser (usually reliable) says: "They are easy to keep tetras, which have no special demands on water and food. For optimal color and fin development soft, slightly acidic water (pH 6 – 6.5) is favorable, as well as secondary plant matter (peat, dead leaves, alder cones)."

Adding botanicals won't change the pH significantly, if at all, especially if you have high KH, but does provide a nice background and is good for soft water fish in general. Do you know the water hardness and TDS ?- these might be actually more important than pH. If you need to, the best way to lower pH is to use partly RO water or rain water. I don't have any experience of this personally as my water is very soft, but from what I have read it is not a good idea to use chemical pH down products.

If at the shop they were kept in the same water conditions it may just be the stress of moving. My ruby tetras were virtually colorless when they arrived and took a while to become pink. I have no idea about how different lighting could affect this, except that I suspect low light, or shading with floating plants would be best. Very bright light could wash out colours.

I just called and they said the PH in the tank at the store is probably close to 7.8 as well. I think I’m going to give them a week or 2 to settle in. He also said when he gets them they almost have no color either. I did test and my KH is 5 and GH is 16.

Based on everyone’s info about these fish I wish I could get my ph levels down to their comfort levels of 6.5 but I don’t think it would be a good idea to start changing my parameters in my tank if my Roselines and serpaes look good already

 

You could change the pH and hardness, but gradually a little at a time, the serpaes should be good with soft water, I'm not sure about the roselines, would have to look that up. But maybe it won't be necessary.

 

Here’s what these guys looked like at the store

 

Looks very similar to Hyphessobrycon heliacus, which is called the KittyTetra in the U.S. I often wonder who gets to decide on these ridiculous common names.

 

Procyon is the scientific name for raccoon but why it is called this I don't know, had a skim through the paper describing it but could not see anything about the name origin, but will read it more carefully later. It means "before dog" and is also the name of a star...No idea where the name kitty tetra would have come from...