''Bryconalestes longipinnis'', the longfin tetra, African long-finned tetra or longfin characin, is a species of freshwater

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Alestidae African tetras (family (biology), family Alestidae, formerly spelled Alestiidae) are a group of Characiformes, characiform fish found exclusively in Africa. This family contains about 18 genera and 119 species. Among the best known members are th ...

, the African tetras. This fish is found in Western Africa.

Distribution

''Bryconalestes longipinnis'' is native to the western coastal regions of Africa from

The Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. It is found in the upper and lower reaches of big rivers and also in

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

mixohaline waters. It is the only ''Brycinus'' species also to penetrate small rivers and streams.

Description

''Bryconalestes longipinnis'' will grow to at least long although most specimens are smaller than this. The populations in the small streams are smaller fish than those in the big rivers. Although it is essentially a freshwater fish, ''Brycinus longipinnis'' will live in

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

estuarine waters.

Diet

''Bryconalestes longipinnis'' eats a wide range of animal and vegetable matter, including insect larvae, crustaceans and some algae. In the aquarium it will eat most fish foods including both flakes and pellets without any trouble; it benefits from live or frozen food such as bloodworms,

brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp or ''Sea-Monkeys, sea monkeys''. It is the only genus in the Family (biology), family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to t ...

and ''

Daphnia ''Daphnia'' is a genus of small planktonic crustaceans, in length. ''Daphnia'' are members of the Order (biology), order Anomopoda, and are one of the several small aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas because their Saltation (gait), ...

''.

References

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxono ...

ITIS report

''Brycinus longipinnis''
at

NCBI The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The NCBI is loca ...

''Brycinus longipinnis''
at

Animal Diversity Web The Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is a non-profit group that hosts an online database site that collects natural history, classification, species characteristics, conservation biology, and distribution information on species of animals. The website ...

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q221795, from2=Q106379414 longipinnis Freshwater fish of Africa Fish described in 1864 Taxa named by Albert Günther Tetras

Distribution

Description

Diet

References

External links