The Adonis tetra (''Lepidarchus adonis'') also known as the jellybean tetra, is a very small African fish of the family

Lepidarchidae Lepidarchidae is a small 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. I ...

. It is the only member of its genus, and one of two members of its family.

Range

''Lepidarchus adonis'' is native to freshwater habitats near the Atlantic coast in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, and

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest city and ...

Size

The Adonis tetra can reach long, smaller than the

neon tetra The neon tetra (''Paracheirodon innesi'') is a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to blackwater and clearwater streams in the Amazon basin of South Am ...

, and is one of the smallest fish normally kept in aquaria.

Conservation status

The

IUCN red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

has listed the Adonis tetra as being a

Vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

since 2010. There is considerable cause for concern because of the increasing levels of pollution in the waterways it inhabits.

References

External links

* http://aquavisie.retry.org/Database/Aquariumfish/Lepidarchus_adonis.html
Adonis Tetra Fact Sheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q366188 Lepidarchidae Tetras Freshwater fish of West Africa Fish described in 1966