NEWS107
22
hobby practically diedout andwith it all
attemptsatbreeding theNeonTetra.Only
after theendof the terriblewarwereaqua-
ristsable todevote themselves tobreeding
attemptsonceagain.Itwasdiscovered that
acombinationofverysoftwater (KHbelow
0.3° dKH), humic acids, a pHbetween 6.2
and6.8,relatively low temperatures (spaw-
ning temperature 23-24 °C,maintenance
temperature 18-22°C), and darkness (the
spawn isextremely light-sensitive)wascru-
cial for successful breeding. If just one of
these parameter waswrong then a bree-
dingattemptwasdoomed to failure.
Don't forget towashyourhands!
There was more to be learned from the
Neon Tetra than just the importance of
water chemistry for breeding fishes.Ami-
crosporidianorganism,
Plistophorahyphes-
sobryconis
, the cause of the dreaded and
still incurable "Neon disease" (it also at-
tacksawholehostofother fishspecies,but
Neons areparticularly susceptible) wiped
outwholepopulationsof theprecious little
fishes.This pathogen attacks the skeletal
musculature,which immediately dies off.
This demonstrated that painstaking hy-
giene needed tobemaintainedwhen re-
theNeons tobe "fishpreserves".Onlyone
of the five fishesarrivedaliveat Lakehurst,
the airfieldwhere theHindenburgwas to
explodeayear later, in1937.The transport
cost$3,000andwasprobably themostex-
pensive fish transportationof all time.
A fish is "christened"
The "Lastof theMohicans" foundanenrap-
turedpublic and eventually received the
popular name still in use to the present
day:NeonTetra.TheNeonwasscientifically
described in1936by theAmericanGeorge
SpragueMyers,oneof the leading ichthyo-
logists of his time,who had received the
preserved specimens fromWilliamThorn-
ton Innes III, the publisher of what was
then themost important American aqua-
riummagazine. Inneshad in turn received
preserved specimens fromRabaut inParis
witha request for identification.Theywere
thus specimens from the first importation.
Myersnamed theNeon
Hyphessobrycon in-
nesi
inhonor of Innes.The locality,which
Rabaut understandably kept secret, was
givenas "vicinityof Iquitos".
The race fora fish
There followed a race. Everybodywanted
toown thismiracle fish. Importing it pro-
misedvastprofits.And itwasassumed that
the Neon would soon prove possible to
breedand then thepricewould fall consi-
derably. Only the first to obtain it would
make a lot of money. There was even a
shortbookwrittenabout thecompetition:
Werner Ladiges, an ichthyologist inHam-
burgwho formanyyearsworkedwith the
ornamental fish importer AquariumHam-
burg,wrotehis recollectionof theexciting
discovery of the Neons: Schwimmendes
Gold vom Rio Ukayali (Swimming Gold
from the RioUcayali).And itwas theGer-
mans thatwon the race…
Theeggswouldn'thatch
But when it came to breeding the Neon
provedahardnut tocrack.The fisheswere
willing enough to spawn, but the eggs
didn't develop. Then came the Second
World War and the German aquarium
XanthicLutinocultivated formof theNeonTetra, ”MonCherie”.
Long-finnedwild-coloredcultivated formof theNeonTetra.
