The green neon tetra (Paracheirodon simulans) is a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. It is native to the upper Orinoco and Negro Rivers in South America.
This fish is similar in appearance to the closely related and better-known neon tetra, but it is slightly smaller and its red patch is less pronounced, while the blue-green areas of the upper body are more brilliant. Also, its body is slimmer than that of the neon tetra. It grows to a maximum overall length of about 2.5 cm (1 in).
Like the other Paracheirodon species, the green neon tetra is kept as an aquarium fish, but it is less commonly seen than either the true neon tetra or the cardinal tetra.
P. simulans is also sometimes called the blue or false neon. Hyphessobrycon simulans and Cheirodon simulans are obsolete synonyms.
This fish loses its brilliant blue and red colors when lights are switched off in the dark, but regains it when lights are switched on again.
Read more about Green Neon Tetra: Water Conditions, Food, Breeding
Famous quotes containing the words green and/or neon:
“Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement; a sanded floor and whitewashed walls and the green trees, and flowery meads, and living waters outside; or a grimy palace amid the same with a regiment of housemaids always working to smear the dirt together so that it may be unnoticed; which, think you, is the most refined, the most fit for a gentleman of those two dwellings?”
—William Morris (1834–1896)
“and in moonlight she comes in her nudity,
flashing breasts made of milk-water,
flashing buttocks made of unkillable lust,
and at night when you enter her
you shine like a neon soprano.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)