Peppermint Tetras - Good SA dither option?

What size tank do you have? These a good amount of dithers out there. If you look up tetra species on google you should be able to find a good list. I did this a few times to find and research tetras.

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Buenos Aires Tetras would work very well. The can hold their own. I use comets for my Jacks andwhen they start to get too big I chunck them up for food and feed them to the Jacks and my crayfish.

I think there are at least 2 tetras called "Peppermint tetras". They all look about the same. I think the ones you are asking about is HYPHESSOBRYCON ORNATUS, but not 100% sure. They are called Rosy Tetras out here. A very peaceful tetras if kept in a big school (8+). I have some in my tank. I am more worryed about the Cichlids killing them (cichlids will be cichlids). They maybe just fine, too big to swallow==depending on how big the S. Daeman are. They can grow to about 8-9 inches long.

PS--IMO, a school of Bleeding Hearts would be better (they grow bigger).
How big is your tank. You would probably need at least 100gals,

I would be concerned about Buenos Aires tetras nipping the fins on the Heckelli. I do keep Buenos Aires tetras in one of my tanks with Geophagus and Satanoperca though without issue.

Frankly I like the activity they give but I am disappointed with the color. It's too similar to the Geo's and not a lot of variety. If I did it again I would go with something more colorful.

Andy

I am not expert with the mentioned cichlids, but I gather they are relatively peaceful and not likely to consider other fish as food in most situations. Tank size obviously plays into this. So I will offer what I can about your tetra question.

Common names are often confusing, and more than one species has been referred to as peppermint or candy cane tetra. One thing I would be fairly certain of is that the species is within the "Rosy" clade of the genus Hyphessobrycon. A photo might help us pin the fish down.

Hyphessobrycon is a "catch-all" genus of characin that presently holds 132 described species [Fishbase]. With the advent of phylogenetic analysis (using DNA) in the last couple of decades, ichthyologists all agree that this genus is polyphyletic and thus contains many species that clearly belong in different genera as they did not all descend from a last common ancestor. Back in the 1990's, Stanley Weitzman determined that the group of about 30 species which he called the Rosy clade were monophyletic, meaning that they all are descendants of the same common ancestor.

As would be expected, all these species share several traits in colour and pattern (aside from internal physiological similarities). All species are somewhat disk-shaped and share the "flag" signal, being a very conspicuous black spot on the dorsal fin, usually underlined by a white or sometimes yellow zone and tipped with white depending upon species. They also share a darkened humeral or shoulder patch immediately posterior of the gill covers; this shoulder patch is sometimes very faint, but in good water/environment conditions is evident.

Species within this clade include Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma (Bleeding Heart), H. rosaceus (Rosy), H. bentosi (Roberti), H. eques (Serpae or Red Minor), H. megalopterus (Black Phanton), and H. sweglesi (Red Phanton) to name a few of the more commonly-seen. Another species in this clade is H. ornatus (Ornate Tetra), and some sources think this is the "peppermint," while others think it may be HY511. [As explorers/collectors are now entering many regions in Amazonia for the first time, they are finding more and more species that may be distinct or geographic variants of already-described species. Hence the "HY" number.] This HY511 is sometimes referred to as the Candy Cane Tetra as well as Peppermint.

If you do some searches you will find photos and videos of these which may help. I am not aware that anyone has yet described HY511 as a distinct species, new or existing.

One observation about these "Rosy" fish in with the cidhlids: all of these Rosy species prefer the lower half of the aquarium, and like to remain within the protection of plants or branches. This sort of environment must be provided or they willnot be at their best. And the cichlids of course are substrate fish, which means they are in the exact same region of the aquarium. Also, some of the tetra will fin nip.

Byron.

My previous post was based upon my recollections from past research, so I just now dug a bit. Hyphessobrycon ornatus is no longer a valid species, having been determined to be synonymous with H. rosaceus. Zarske & Gery (1995) placed H. ornatus in synonymy with H. bentosi, which makes sense since Gery was of the mind that this name applied to the "Rosy" tetra, and he suggested the Roberti tetra was undescribed [Baensch & Riehl in the Aquarium Atlas I mention that Scheel considered H. ornatus = H. bentosi and with H. "robertsi" were geographical colour morphs of H. bentosi; in a private letter, Gery suggested H. robertsi might be a distinct species.] Weitzman & Palmer (1997) determined that the correct "Rosy" tetra is H. rosaceus, and H. bentosi is in fact the Roberti Tetra. Thus, Zarske & Gery were correct in that H. ornatus is actually the "Rosy."

In my last post I mentioned the variants of species due to geographical factors. If you do photo searches of this genus (Hyphessobrycon) it readily becomes apparent that there are two, three or even more "species" that bear striking resemblance to a long-established and known species. Pristella is another. The Nannostomus genus holding the pencilfishes is yet another example. What is now N. mortenthaleri was initially assumed to be a variant, then it was described by Paepke & Arendta (2001) as a sub-species, of N. marginatus; Weitzman & Weitzman (2003) sorted this out and established it as a distinct species, and then in 2009 yet another "variant" of N. marginatus was discovered in a remote creek, and this time it was described as the distinct species N. rubrocaudatus by Zarske.

Allopatric speciation, also called geographic speciation, is being seen throughout the Amazon basin. The Black-winged Hatchetfish, Carnegiella marthae, is now believed to be at least three distinct species; this fish has a very large geographic distribution and new collections are determining the distinct species situation. The phylogenetic or cladistic analysis method now being used allows us to see just how evolution really works, and as Darwin surmised, is still working today.

So back to your Peppermint...it seems to be a variant of the Rosy Tetra, H. rosaceus, which may mean a subspecies or a distinct species.

Byron.