Hatchetfish & South American Fish

A wide catch-all for the South American characins and their relatives: marble and silver hatchetfish, silver dollars including red hook (Myloplus rubripinnis) and true wide bar, red and albino pacu, Leporinus friderici, blacktail hemiodus, and wolf fish. Different fish with one thing in common: a river with current, and neighbours their own size. Every listing here names its quarantine tier in the title.

Read this one carefully rather than shopping by picture. Hatchetfish are two-inch surface fish that jump at a shadow and belong nowhere near a Hoplias wolf fish. Pacu are the other trap: Piaractus brachypomus is a pond animal sold as an aquarium fish, and it will outgrow anything you own. Silver dollars are the sensible middle — buy six rather than two, and keep them away from plants you like.