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Readers Respond: Have you kept a Black Widow Tetra?

Responses: 7

By Shirlie Sharpe, About.com

Have you kept a Black Widow Tetra? If so, share your experiences about care, habitat, feeding and breeding of Black Widow Tetra. Your knowledge could help other owners! Share Your Experiences

Black Widow Tetra is "Devil Fish"

My teacher has had a Black Widow Tetra for about 2 years. He has eaten every fish she has had in the tank; a large goldfish, his own mate, and other goldfish slightly larger than him. She has wanted to give him away but no one wants this "devil fish". He has not eaten for at least 3 months and he is still alive. His tank is filthy. This is a true "immortal" fish.
—Guest Teacher's Student

Long lived

I loved my BWTs. they were very long lived (at least 3 years). Our tank sprung a leak and we are buying a new one. I will definitely buy more BWT. One bigger than the others would chase the other fish sometimes. We called him "evil fish"
—Guest Guest Jayne

Black widow tetras

I have a 10 gallon tank. I buy 6 at a time and they school around until feeding time. When they see me they all line up staring at me until I feed them! Very cute personalites...very easy to care for!
—Guest mer404

Black Widow

I had a 30 gallon tank with many different kinds of tetras in it. They would group together per their species but were never agressive to there neighbors. All were hardy fish and easy to care for.
—Guest jimmie tullis

fish

I have 3 black widow tetras 1 cory cat and 1 black mollie in a 10 gallon tank and they are so funny,crazy and hardy.
—Guest ipoo

Black Widow is right.

I had several BWTs.. two survived out of five and promptly killed off the rest of my fish by eating their fins or chasing them from the food. They were hardy little fish, though. They survived a broken water heater in the middle of winter when I couldn't afford a new heater, an algae infestation, a snail infestation, a broken filter... They didn't die until one of the few remaining fish, the survivor of a pair of irridescent sharks, finally became fed up with being harassed by fish 1/10 his size and ate them up. Haha. I had them for at least 5 years.
—Guest Elisha

Long Fin Black Tetra

My LFBTs are very beautiful and have friendly personalities. They are the same fish as the Black Widows except that they were selectively bred to grow the long flowing fins. Mine are over two years and their bodies are about 1 1/2 inches diameter, and including the fins are about 3 to 3 1/2 long.. They chase an play with each other, they spawn frequently. Because of the long fins they shouldn't be kept with nippy fish.
—Guest Dano01

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Have you kept a Black Widow Tetra?

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