Mexican tetra
The Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus), also known as the blind cave fish, blind cave characin, and blind cave tetra, is a freshwater fish of the family Characidae of the order Characiformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to the Nearctic realm, originating in the lower Rio Grande and the Neueces and Pecos Rivers in Texas, as well as the central and eastern parts of Mexico.
| Mexican tetra | |
|---|---|
| Normal form (above) and blind cave form (below) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Characiformes |
| Family: | Characidae |
| Genus: | Astyanax |
| Species: | A. mexicanus |
| Binomial name | |
| Astyanax mexicanus (De Filippi, 1853) | |
| Approximate range | |
| Synonyms | |
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Growing to a maximum total length of 12 cm (4.7 in), the Mexican tetra is of typical characin shape, with silvery, unremarkable scalation. Its blind cave form, however, is notable for having no eyes or pigment; it has a pinkish-white color to its body (resembling an albino).
This fish, especially the blind variant, is reasonably popular among aquarists.
A. mexicanus is a peaceful species that spends most of its time in midlevel water above the rocky and sandy bottoms of pools and backwaters of creeks and rivers of its native environment. Coming from a subtropical climate, it prefers water with 6.5–8 pH, a hardness of up to 30 dGH, and a temperature range of 20 to 25 °C (68 to 77 °F). In the winter, some populations migrate to warmer waters. Its natural diet consists of crustaceans, insects, and annelids, although in captivity it is omnivorous.
The Mexican tetra has been treated as a subspecies of A. fasciatus, but this is not widely accepted. Additionally, the hypogean blind cave form is sometimes recognized as a separate species, A. jordani, but this directly contradicts phylogenetic evidence.