Rummy Nose Tetra Care & Info | Your Water Quality Watchdogs

There are many tetra species out there, one more spectacular than the other. One of our personal favorites, though, is the rummy nose tetra. This species’ red face and silver body ensure a dramatic display, while its friendly nature makes this little fish suitable for peaceful community aquariums.

Find out everything you need to know about keeping these sensitive tetras, sometimes known as “underwater canaries in the coal mine”, in your home aquarium!

Rummy Nose Tetra Description

Appearance

The rummy nose tetra is a typical small, schooling tetra species with a torpedo-shaped body. It reaches a maximum size of up to 2”, with the females being slightly larger, and is mainly appreciated by aquarists for its colors.

The species sports a shimmery silver body and a strikingly red face, plus a black-and-white striped tail. It’s like they dipped their faces in a bucket of paint!

Will the Real Rummy Nose Tetra Please…

As with many aquarium fish, the identity of the “true” rummy nose tetra was long in dispute. Most folks agreed that a species scientifically named Hemigrammus rhodostomus was the real deal, although its cousin Hemigrammus bleheri really was very similar in appearance, behavior, and pretty much everything else.

Then there was Petitella georgiae, known as the false rummy nose—less commonly available in aquarium stores, but still an occasional source of confusion. It was a relief when scientists finally resolved the matter in 2020!

Here’s what they did: they teased out the phylogenetic (the way creatures are related to each other) relationships and concluded that the two Hemigrammus species are highly similar to Petitella georgiae. As such, they moved them into this formerly monotypic (containing only one species) genus.

Now, the names are as follows:

• Petitella rhodostoma
• Petitella bleheri
• Petitella georgiae

Care for all of these species is more or less the same. No matter which one you got, if it’s silver with a red nose, this guide applies to it!

Natural Habitat

Rummy noses are one of the many popular aquarium fish species that naturally occur in the Amazon basin. They can be found in Colombia, Venezuela, northern Brazil, Peru, and parts of Ecuador.

Here, these tetras don’t tend to inhabit the main Amazon River, nor in fact its biggest tributaries (like the Río Negro, Río Meta, and the Orinoco). Instead, they like smaller, seasonally flooded rivers, streams, and lakes called igapós.

Igapós often (though not always) feature “blackwater”, which is stained the color of black tea. This coloration is natural: it’s caused by tannins released by decaying organic matter like leaves and branches from overhanging trees, which has the added effect of making the water soft and acidic.

Petitella georgiae and P. bleheri are on the IUCN Red List, with the organization categorizing them as Least Concern. This means they’re not currently considered threatened in the wild, mostly thanks to their wide natural range and the fact that they can locally be quite common.

Rummy Nose Tetra Aquarium

As with all aquarium fish, the best way to really make sure your rummy nose tetras thrive is to imitate their natural habitat as much as you can. Although this species is a popular choice for any type of peaceful community set-up due to its friendly nature, it really does best in a (biotope) tank that resembles the black waters it’s usually found in.

Rummy nose tetras will do just fine in a heavily planted clearwater set-up, but for a little extra you can opt to generously use leaf litter in the tank. This can consist of anything aquarium-safe if you’re not looking to imitate a specific biotope, although the easiest type of dried leaves to find in the aquarium hobby will be Indian almond leaves.

Plants are not hugely common in blackwater habitats, but you can still opt to use them in your tank to provide extra cover. Since the lighting will be dim, try floating plants or low-light species like Anubias.

Additionally, try using fine branches, driftwood, oak/beech leaves, alder cones, seed pods, palm fronds and more! You can find more tips in our post on setting up a blackwater aquarium.

Tip: Although these are small fish, they’re quite active, and you need to keep a sizeable school. That’s why we don’t recommend them for tanks under 20 gallons (long, not tall).

Water Quality

As we mentioned, rummy nose tetras are sometimes called the “canaries in the coal mine” of the fishkeeping hobby. This is due to their sensitive nature: this species doesn’t respond well to the chemical composition of an immature or neglected tank. You can’t slack if you have rummy noses, and we don’t consider them beginner-proof.

Like many other fish, these tetras will start looking somewhat washed-out if the water quality isn’t up to their standards. This means a school of pale-faced rummy noses is a tell-tale sign that it’s time to keep a closer eye on the water parameters, before things really start going downhill.

Remember: the aquarium should always be fully cycled, with zero ammonia or nitrites. You should be doing regular water changes to keep the nitrates down, and the pH should be below neutral to imitate the soft, acidic waters that rummy noses are naturally found in.

Tip: Careful acclimation is very important for rummy nose tetras. They don’t handle transport well, especially if it’s followed by the shock of being dumped in different water.

Tankmates

You should always in mind that rummy nose tetras are schooling fish. As long as your aquarium can accommodate is, more is pretty much always better. A good minimum number for a group is 8, but you’ll love the sight of a group of 20 or more rummy noses.

This is a popular species to keep with larger cichlids like discus fish and angelfish, since it’s just a little too big to be eaten—though be sure to buy adult rummy noses if you’re planning on doing this.

Additionally, rummy nose tetras can be kept with other small schooling fish or peaceful catfish that hail from similar waters, like:

• Dwarf cichlids
• Twig catfish
• Bristlenose Plecos
• Corydoras catfish

If you don’t mind combining fish from different geographic regions, kuhli loaches make quite a good choice as well.

Rummy Nose Tetra Diet

Wild rummy nose tetras have been found to eat different foods depending on the season. According to scientists, they will turn more predatory in the flood season, gorging themselves on microcrustaceans. In the dry season, they make do with midge fly larvae, algae, and plant bits.

Feed your rummy nose tetras a regular small staple food for tropical fish. Don’t forget to switch things up once in a while with frozen or even live foods, though! This species has clearly adapted to eating a varied diet.

Breeding Rummy Nose Tetras

Many tetras are relatively easy to breed in the aquarium as long as you know how to deal with their very tiny offspring. Rummy noses are an exception, unfortunately: they’re considered challenging to breed at home.

This is an egg-scattering species. In the wild, their spawning season aligns with the flood period; the males chase and woo the females until they release their eggs on the surrounding plants. The parents then abandon the sticky eggs (or, as often happens in the aquarium, eat them! Not ideal).

The process of getting rummy noses to breed is similar to the process in other species, it’s just that it doesn’t always go as smoothly:

• Condition the fish with plenty of live foods, keeping the water quality pristine.
• Set up a separate breeding tank with a sponge filter and some plants or spawning mops. Keep the lighting dim.
• Move a conditioned pair (the female should be nice and round) to the breeding tank.
• Simulate the rainy season by lowering the pH and water temperature over the course of a few days. This can be done by doing water changes with rain water or water that has been soaked in peat moss.
• Keep an eye on the parents. As soon as they’ve spawned, they should be moved back to the main tank, lest they eat their offspring.
• The eggs hatch within 1-1.5 days. The fry will feed off their yolk sacs at first.
• Once the yolk sacs have been consumed, start the baby fish on regular feedings of infusoria.
• When the fry have grown a bit, they can be switched to baby brine shrimp or similar.

Conclusion

The lovely rummy nose tetra is not too difficult to keep in the aquarium, but it’s important to keep the water quality high. This South American species makes an especially good choice for a blackwater, Amazon-style tank.

Want to set up your own (rummy nose tetra) aquarium? If the task at hand seems too daunting or time-consuming, we can help you out. At FantaSEA Aquariums, we get our hands wet so you don’t have to: just contact us with your ideas and we’ll design, set up & maintain your tank for you.