The Neon Tetra Paracheirodon innesi The history of the Neon was best written by Heiko Bleher: “In 1934, the French August Rabaut, having been hunting alligators and butterflies in the Amazon jungle near the Brazilian town of Tabatinga, discovered and collected a small fish whose color resembled that of the beautiful iridescent Morpho butterflies. The back of his body was bright red like lipstick and the overall effect of the colors made one think of the neon light. Rabaut brought back to France a few of these living beings – one of the most remarkable in the history of aquarium events. The Neon tetra In Paris, the small Neons were a sensation and soon were in books. They passed from the hands of JS Neel Company Lepant to Mr. Griem, Aquarium Hamburg in Germany, who at the time was entertaining a guest from the US, Fred Cochu. Fred managed to steal six live specimens and brought them back to America on the 144th (and last) flight of the aircraft Hindenburg (its next flight ended in disaster in Lakehurst, when the Hindenburg exploded and most passengers were killed) . Although Fred reached his destination without incident, only one of his neons survived the trip. It was given the name “Lucky Lindy”. as Charles Lindberg was the first of his kind to cross the Atlantic.

The dead Neons were given to the internationally famous editor Williams T. Innes in Philadelphia, who in turn passed some of these fish to ichthyologist George S. Myers, who had studied with the famous Carl Eigenmann who was a recognized authority on fish, amphibians and reptiles. On July 3, 1936, Myers published the original description of this species in the “Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington” under the name of Hyphessobrycon innesi, this way honoring a man who may not have had anything to do with the discovery of the fish, but nevertheless deserves our thanks for his services to the aquarium hobby. At that time, Rabaut had realized that he had stumbled upon something valuable, and in 1936 returned to Brazil to collect neon tetras commercially. He took the first shipment of 4,000 specimens to New York. Innes Williams had recommended Fred Cochu of Paramount Aquarium and both were waiting for Rabauts arrival. This represented a sensational story for Innes magazine and Cochu wanted the neons. He offered $ 4,000 for the fish – an incredibly high sum for the time. The first neons went on sale in the market at $ 10 each, and all were sold. Fred It took a week to get the money together to pay Rabaut on time, and then made a contract with him to collect these fish for the aquarium Paramount. Fred thought that only Rabaut knew the original source of the neons and was not willing to reveal it. But in Germany a “gold rush” of neons was underway, and a team of Aquarium Hamburg, including Hans W. Pietch and Praetorius, was already underway at Benjamin Constant (Tabatinga).

Rabaut was already back to New York with the second large shipment of neon when he stopped in the capital of Amazonas for the night. The Germans boat was anchor near Rabaut, they spotted the bottles with neon and threw all the fish overboard. Thus, Aquarium Hamburg got the advantage in the race of neon collection. Rabaut had to go back and capture it all again …. At this point, Innes and Myers cited the source of the neon tetra as “probably near Iquitos,” while others said it was Tabatinga. However, it is now known that the species has special requirements of a biotope. bns gold The species is found mainly in Peru in the so-called “quebradas”, small creeks of clear water with a significant blackwater component, wherein the pH ranges from 5 to 6 and temperature from 24 to 29 ° C and total hardness is less than 1 dGH. Its natural distribution is limited to the upper Amazon, the lower to middle Uyacali near Iquitos (Rio Nanay, Rio Mannequin) lower and close to Sao Paulo de Olivenca, Brazil, is also known to be in the Putumayo River and elsewhere. Cardinal tetra As the neon tetra was a sensation before the Second World War, in the same way the Cardinal was a novelty in the post-war.

Around 1950 it was rumored that a new “Neon” had been discovered in the Amazon basin. Harald Sioli, the pioneer of research in limnology of Amazonas, was the first white man to see the fish, while working on the upper Rio Negro in September 1952, but thought he was dealing with the neon tetra. nike air pegasus An airline pilot on Panair do Brasil, Captain Malm, who was also a fan of fish, heard about this and around the year 1952 commissioned some Indians who harvested the first living cardinals. These were a hit with aquarists in Sao Paulo, so the captain Malm organised subsequent collections of “cardinais” (as the call Brazilians today) whenever he had a chance during his adventurous DC-3 flights over the jungle. By the end of 1953, Amanda Bleher saw some of these “red neon” (as they are known in Germany) in Sao Paulo during her intrepid expedition to South America in search of Discus, and bought some specimens, the first Cardinals to be exported .

The flight to Germany in March 1954 lasted 37 hours and unfortunately all the fish were dead on arrival. Others, she later transported in special fish cans, died in a tragic bus accident that eliminated her entire collection of new fish, plants, insects and reptiles. This gem of a fish apparently first became noticed by the people of the United States in 1955, when the new species was simultaneously and independently described by prominent American ichthyologists in two different publications – by LP Schultz of the Smithsonian Institute, and on the other, by George S. Myers and Stanley Weitzman at Stanford University. This meant that two scientific names were published, Cheirodon axelrodi and Hyphessobrycon cardinalis, reflecting the views of the two groups of authors regarding its generic placement. This led to an unfortunate debate that eventually went in favor of Schultz, and thus Cardinal (and neon) was named in honor of a man who had nothing to do with its discovery. The newly discovered cardinal was even more colorful than its cousin the neon, since the red coloration extended over almost the entire length of the lower half of its body. But commercial collections and export did not begin until late 50s. This happened when the Austrian animal collector Hans Willy Schwatrz (who had recently helped Walt Disney with his film about the Black Panther) realized the great potential of this fish, to sell the first 10,000 cardinals for $5 a piece to a Chinese named Chung who lived in Georgetown, Guyana in 1959. In 10 years, Cardinals became the most popular aquarium fish, and nowadays, a little over 50 years after its discovery, remains the number one, most aquarium fish sold worldwide”.