Issue
Regan (1912) described three Copella species from the Atlantic coastal region between the mouth of the Orinoco in Venezuela and the mouth of the Amazon in Pará Brazil, C. arnoldi, C. carsevennensis, and C. eigenmanni. No recent review has been produced to clarify their identities or relationships. The ‘splash tetra’ has been in the aquarium trade for a long time. This species lays its eggs on the underside of leaves just above the water line and the adults, mainly the male, splash water on the eggs until they hatch. The breeding behavior of the other two species has not been recorded. Other species of the genus lay their eggs on leaves near the surface but under water. See Planquette, Keith and Le Bail, 1996:178, for notes on the fish in French Guyana.
Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range
Ecology
Freshwater; benthopelagic; pH range: 6.0 - 8.0; dH range: 5 - 12. Tropical; 25°C - 29°C (Ref. 1672)
South America: lower Amazon, coastal Guianas to mouth of the Orinoco River.
Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ? range ? - ? cm
Max length : 3.4 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 37104); max. published weight: 0.33 g (Ref. 125972)
Feeds on worms, insects and crustaceans (Ref. 7020).
Life cycle and mating behavior
Maturities | Reproduction | Spawnings | Egg(s) | Fecundities | Larvae
Deposits eggs on underside of objects above the water surface. Male in water splashes the clutch periodically (Ref. 7471). In the aquarium, male and female swim vertically to the surface, flick their tails and leap up to a leaf. Female lays from 5 to 8 eggs on the leaf and male fertilizes them immediately. This procedure is repeated several times until some hundreds of eggs have been laid. Male then keeps the eggs damp by flicking his tail to spray them with water. As eggs hatch, fry fall into the water (Ref. 7020).
Weitzman, M. and S.H. Weitzman, 2003. Lebiasinidae (Pencil fishes). p. 241-251. In R.E. Reis, S.O. Kullander and C.J. Ferraris, Jr. (eds.) Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, Brasil. (Ref. 37104)
IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)
Threat to humans
Harmless
Human uses
Fisheries: commercial; aquarium: commercial
Tools
Special reports
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Internet sources
Estimates based on models
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref.
82804): PD
50 = 0.5020 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00692 (0.00385 - 0.01244), b=3.08 (2.92 - 3.24), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & (Sub)family-body (Ref.
93245).
Trophic level (Ref.
69278): 3.3 ±0.40 se; based on food items.
Resilience (Ref.
120179): Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (Females can lay hundreds of eggs (Ref.
7020)).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref.
59153): Low vulnerability (10 of 100).
