Hemiodus Red Tail

The red tail hemiodus is a swift, slender, beautiful schooling fish from streams of Venezuela. Hemiodus are in a class of their own, and it is surprising they are hard to find in aquarium stores. These are perfect larger schoolers for cichlid tanks and larger community aquariums. Hemiodus are omnivores, so they need both veggies and meat in their pellet or flake food (so any good-quality community food). These fish are wild-caught in Venezuela and will not tolerate higher pH, so please keep pH below 7.5.

Quick Facts

Care Guide

Tank setup: Hemiodus are fast, active schoolers, so give them plenty of open swimming space, some current and a tight-fitting lid, since they jump.

Feeding: Feed a quality flake or small pellet with some vegetable content once or twice a day. They also enjoy frozen foods like bloodworms and brine shrimp.

Tankmates: Hemiodus do well with larger peaceful to semi-aggressive fish such as larger tetras, silver dollars, geophagus, severums and peaceful South American cichlids.

Good to know: Hemiodus are not cichlids; they are fast, schooling characins that make a good "dither fish" for cichlid tanks.