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title: "Ember Tetra: The Complete Nano Care, Tank & Breeding Guide" description: "The definitive ember tetra (Hyphessobrycon amandae) care guide: nano and shrimp-safe tank setup, water parameters, shoaling, feeding, tank mates, and breeding." slug: ember-tetra commonName: Ember Tetra scientificName: Hyphessobrycon amandae family: Characidae order: Characiformes difficulty: Beginner minTankSize: 10 temperature: "73–82°F (23–28°C)" ph: "5.5–7.0" hardness: "1–8 dGH" lifespan: "2–4 years" maxSize: "0.8 inches (2 cm)" origin: "Brazil — Araguaia basin" publishedAt: "2026-06-04"

Ember Tetra: The Complete Nano Care, Tank & Breeding Guide

The ember tetra is a glowing coal of a fish — a tiny, fiery orange nano tetra that drifts in loose shoals through planted and blackwater tanks like a scatter of embers. Hyphessobrycon amandae is peaceful, hardy, inexpensive, and small enough for the tightest nano setups, yet it brings warmth and movement that few fish its size can match. Crucially, it's one of the best shrimp-safe centerpiece schoolers, making it a favourite for planted nano and shrimp-friendly community tanks.

This guide is the complete reference: the ember tetra's biology, how to set up its nano tank, what to feed it, why it pairs so well with shrimp, which tank mates suit it, and how to breed it.

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Species Overview

The ember tetra (Hyphessobrycon amandae) is a micro characin from Brazil, reaching only about 2 cm (0.8 inches) — one of the smallest commonly-kept tetras. Its body is a translucent, glowing orange-to-red, brightest in mature, well-conditioned fish, with subtle red eyes; in a shoal under good lighting against a dark, planted backdrop, embers look like floating coals.

The ember tetra is peaceful, hardy, adaptable, and nano-perfect, thriving in tanks as small as 10 gallons. It is a loose shoaler that's confident and active when kept in a group, and its tiny size and gentle nature make it genuinely shrimp-safe (adults won't harm adult dwarf shrimp, though they may eat the occasional newborn shrimplet). It's an ideal first fish, an excellent nano centerpiece, and one of the best schoolers for a planted shrimp tank. With good care it lives 2–4 years.

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Natural History and Origin

Hyphessobrycon amandae is native to the Araguaia River basin in Brazil, living in slow, soft, often tannin-stained waters — densely vegetated forest streams and pools, dimly lit and gently acidic. This soft, warm, blackwater-leaning habitat shapes its care: it shows its best colour and feels most secure in soft, warm, well-planted, gently tannin-stained water with subdued lighting.

In the wild, embers shoal among submerged plants and leaf litter, feeding on tiny invertebrates. Named after aquarist Amanda Bleher, the species is now widely tank-bred, hardy, and adaptable to a range of conditions, though it always looks best in a soft, dim, planted setup that mirrors its natural home. Its small size makes it both a peaceful community fish and a fish that needs protection from larger tank mates.

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Water Parameters

Ember tetras do best in soft, warm, slightly acidic, stable water, though tank-bred stock is adaptable to neutral, moderately soft conditions. Keep the tank cycled and stable — confirm with the nitrogen cycle tracker and check values with the water parameters reference. Botanicals, leaf litter, and driftwood create the gentle tannin-stained water that brings out their fiery colour and recreates their habitat.

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Tank Setup Guide

Tank size

A shoal of 8–10 embers is comfortable in a 10-gallon (38-litre) nano tank, making this one of the best schooling fish for small setups. A larger tank simply allows a bigger, more impressive shoal.

Aquascape — planted and dim

Embers shine in a densely planted nano tank with a dark substrate, driftwood, leaf litter, fine-leaved plants, and Java moss, plus some open space for loose shoaling. Subdued lighting (or floating plants like duckweed) makes them feel secure and dramatically intensifies their orange glow against the greenery and dark wood. This is also exactly the kind of scape that suits dwarf shrimp, which is why the two are kept together so often.

Filtration, flow, lighting

Use gentle filtration with low flow — these tiny fish dislike strong current. A sponge filter is ideal (and shrimp-safe). Subdued, planted lighting completes the look and keeps the embers confident and colourful.

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Feeding Guide

Ember tetras are micro-predators with tiny mouths, so foods must be small.

What to feed

• Crushed micro-flake and nano/micro-pellets — sized for tiny mouths.
• Live and frozen baby brine shrimp and small daphnia — relished, excellent for colour.
• Cyclops, microworms, and crushed frozen foods for variety.

How often

Feed two to three small meals daily of appropriately tiny foods. Embers are small and can be outcompeted by faster fish, so ensure they get their share. A varied diet with small live/frozen foods brings out their deepest fiery orange. A healthy ember is brightly coloured and shoals actively in the open.

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Behavior and Temperament

Ember tetras are peaceful loose shoalers — they don't school as tightly as rummynose tetras, instead drifting and foraging together as a loose, glowing group that spreads across the tank. They are confident and active in a group of 8 or more, and become shy and washed-out in small numbers, so a proper shoal is important.

They are completely peaceful toward other species and, thanks to their tiny size and gentle mouths, are among the most shrimp-safe schooling fish — a major reason they're paired with cherry shrimp colonies. They make excellent dither fish, helping shy species feel secure. Their warmth, movement, and peaceful nature make them an ideal nano centerpiece and a perfect community schooler for gentle setups.

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Compatibility

Ember tetras are superb peaceful nano and community fish, compatible with almost any gentle tank mate.

Good tank mates: cherry shrimp and other dwarf shrimp (one of the best shrimp-safe schoolers), celestial pearl danio, neon tetra, harlequin rasbora, corydoras (pygmy and small species especially), otocinclus, honey gourami, and betta fish (peaceful individuals).

Cautions:

• Any fish large enough to eat them — embers are tiny; avoid larger or predatory tank mates.
• Boisterous or fin-nipping fish — stress the small shoal.
• Fast greedy feeders — outcompete the small embers for food.

A shoal of embers in a planted shrimp tank, or with celestial pearl danios and pygmy corydoras, is a classic, beautiful nano community. Use the compatibility checker to plan.

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Breeding Guide

Ember tetras are egg-scatterers and can be bred by a patient keeper, though the tiny fry are a challenge. Sexing is subtle: males are slimmer and often more intensely coloured; females are slightly rounder, especially when full of eggs.

Condition a group on small live foods, then provide soft, slightly acidic water and dense fine-leaved plants, Java moss, or a spawning mop. Embers scatter their eggs among the plants and eat their own eggs, so either use a dense moss thicket that protects fallen eggs or remove the adults after spawning. The eggs hatch in a day or two, and the fry are minuscule, needing the very smallest first foods — infusoria and then microworms and finely-crushed foods — before baby brine shrimp. Pristine, soft, stable water is essential for the delicate fry. A heavily mossed, mature tank sometimes yields a few surviving fry naturally, which is the easiest way to get your first home-bred embers.

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Health and Disease

Ember tetras are hardy, and most problems are the standard small-fish issues, infrequent with good care.

Ich can follow temperature swings or stress; treat promptly (and gently, mindful of shrimp if present). Bacterial and fungal infections follow poor water or stress. As small fish, they're sensitive to poor water quality and to the stress of being kept in too-small a group or with intimidating tank mates. Newly imported or newly added embers may be pale and shy until settled.

Prevention: a stable, cycled, soft-ish, planted tank, a good-sized shoal, gentle flow, small varied foods, peaceful tank mates, and quarantine of new arrivals. Given those, the ember tetra is one of the hardiest, most trouble-free nano fish you can keep.

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Interesting Facts

• A floating ember. Its glowing translucent orange, multiplied across a shoal in a dark planted tank, genuinely resembles drifting embers — the origin of its name's imagery.
• Named for Amanda. The species honours aquarist Amanda Bleher, daughter of famous fish collector Heiko Bleher.
• Genuinely shrimp-safe. Its tiny size and gentle mouth make it one of the few schooling fish truly suited to a dwarf shrimp colony.
• A loose shoaler. Unlike tight-schooling rummynoses, embers drift together as a relaxed, glowing group spread across the tank.
• Nano-perfect. At 2 cm it thrives in a 10-gallon tank, ideal for small planted setups.

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Bringing It Together

The ember tetra is one of the best nano and shrimp-tank fish in the hobby — a tiny, glowing, peaceful schooler that brings fiery warmth and gentle movement to planted and blackwater setups, all in a fish hardy and small enough for a 10-gallon tank. Give it soft, warm, slightly-acidic water in a dim, densely-planted, gently-tannin-stained scape, gentle flow, small varied foods, and peaceful tank mates — and keep a shoal of 8 or more — and it will drift through your tank like scattered embers for years, perfectly at home alongside a cherry shrimp colony. Pair it with celestial pearl danios, pygmy corydoras, and cherry shrimp for a stunning nano community. Plan the build with the AI Tank Blueprint generator and the compatibility checker.