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American Characins

Nanaethiops Unitaeniatus

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There are 200 different species of characins in Africa, which are classified into 3 main families these being Characidae, Citharinidae and Hepsetidae. Characidae contain the most popular African characins like the Congo tetra, they can be maintained in the aquaria (with the exception of the genus Hydrocynus which contain the Tiger characin and wolf tetra these are large predators with very impressive teeth), they scatter their eggs among fine leaved plants, they prefer peat filtered soft water conditions. Citharinidae are a varied family, It contains deep bodied herbivores and slender elongated predators, their size also varies from small community fish to large fish which could only be housed in larger public or show Aquaria. Nanocharax species are similar to the South American subfamily Characidiinae the similarity is used as evidence to date the characins to pre continental drift times. Hepsetidae contains the African Pike Characin a very large predator ambushes its prey.