Pinktailed Characin

About

The pinktailed characin (Chalceus macrolepidotus) is one of those fish that immediately draws attention in a large aquarium. Not just for its rose-flushed tail and distinctively large, almost armor-like scales, but for its constant motion. This is not a fish that sits still. In the wild it inhabits well-oxygenated rivers and coastal drainages across northern South America, from the Negro and Orinoco basins to the rivers of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, where it cruises near the surface and will readily launch itself clear of the water. That jumping tendency is very real in captivity, so a tight-fitting lid is non-negotiable. Temperamentally, it occupies a middle ground. Peaceful enough with similarly sized tankmates like large characins, loricariids, and cichlids such as Geophagus, but genuinely dangerous to anything small enough to swallow, and territorial toward other surface dwellers. Keeping them solo or in groups of seven or more tends to reduce in-fighting that plagues smaller groups. New arrivals can be fragile because those big scales take damage during shipping, but fish that settle in well tend to prove durable over time. Breeding has been accomplished but remains poorly documented, requiring very large setups and producing clutches of up to two thousand eggs.