Taxonomy
- Géry, J. 1966
Axelrodia riesei, a new characoid fish from Upper Rio Méta in Colombia. (With remarks concerning the genus Axelrodia and a description of a similar, sympatric, Hyphessobrycon-species.). Ichthyol. Aquarium J. v. 37 (no. 3, Mar.): 111-120.
Géry, J., 1977
Characoids of the world. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., N.J. 672 p.
Distribution and habitat
South America: upper Meta River basin, Columbia. Orinoco River, Venezuela.
My Experience
I keep them in soft, acid, peat filtered water.
They happily eat BBS (and they get this most days), but everything I offer is given a warm welcome, even (crushed) flakes.
Said to be strongly red in nature, but often gets paleer in captivity.
Some reports indicate that there exist two forms; one of them turns very pale in captivity, while the other form retain the strong red colour even in aquarium. If this is true, I think I have had both forms...
Maximum length reported to reach 4 cm TL, but usually they only reach about 25 - 30mm.
Breeding
Breeding them in captivity is said to be very difficult.
I left 3 specimens in a 160 liter tank with a layer of 15-20 cm Javamoss on the ground..... Now (Nov. 2024) I see at least 2 different sizes and around 150-200 specimens in total.
Here are a few of them:
