Tequila splitfin

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep six or more in 75 liters or larger at 20 to 26 C, pH 7.0 to 8.0, in hard water. Feed small frozen and live foods such as daphnia and cyclops plus a vegetable based flake. Good tankmates are other calm goodeids, or run a species tank, since fin nippers and boisterous fish stress them. Females reach about 6 cm, males a little smaller.

In the wild

A small, dark goodeid best kept in a group in a well planted tank with hard, alkaline water and gentle flow. Mature males show a bright orange to red crescent at the edge of the tail. They are peaceful for a goodeid and graze algae and small live foods. Stable, clean water suits them best.

Good to know

Zoogoneticus tequila was thought extinct in the wild after its tiny range collapsed, then a remnant population was found surviving in a single spring pool. It is a matrotrophic livebearer, feeding embryos internally through trophotaeniae, and produces small broods of large fry. It remains critically endangered.

Did you know

A captive breeding and reintroduction project led by a Mexican university and Chester Zoo returned the tequila splitfin to its native spring in the late 2010s, one of the few fish brought back from extinction in the wild.

Related species

• 

  Redtail splitfin

  Xenotoca eiseni

  2.8 in (7 cm)20 gal (75 L)64–82°F (18–28°C)
• Bumblebee goodeid

  Allotoca dugesii

  2.8 in (7 cm)20 gal (75 L)64–79°F (18–26°C)
• Jeweled splitfin

  Xenotoca variata

  2.8 in (7 cm)20 gal (75 L)64–81°F (18–27°C)

• 

  Rainbow goodeid

  Characodon lateralis

  2.4 in (6 cm)15 gal (57 L)61–75°F (16–24°C)

• 

  Spotted skiffia

  Skiffia multipunctata

  2.4 in (6 cm)16 gal (60 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
• Golden skiffia

  Skiffia francesae

  2.2 in (5.5 cm)16 gal (60 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)