''Hyphessobrycon agulha'' (also known as the red-tailed flag tetra) is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

tetra Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA; formerly known as Trans-European Trunked Radio), a European standard for a trunked radio system, is a professional mobile radio and two-way transceiver specification. TETRA was specifically designed for use by go ...

in the family

Characidae Characidae, the characids or characins is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish, belonging to the order Characiformes. The name "characins" is the historical one, but scientists today tend to prefer "characids" to reflect their st ...

. As a

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

, it inhabits the basin of the

Madeira River The Madeira River ( pt, Rio Madeira, link=no ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

along with parts of Peru and Bolivia, and it reaches a maximum length of . Though it is mainly found in the wild, it is occasionally kept by fishkeepers and is sometimes confused with 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 ...

. The fish is primarily an

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

, though it does eat vegetable matter. It is considered to form a group with other species in ''

Hyphessobrycon ''Hyphessobrycon'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the family (biology), family Characidae. These species are among the fishes known as tetras. The genus is distributed in the Neotropical realm from southern Mexico to Río de la Plata in Argenti ...

'' as they share a dark stripe running lengthwise. While its name comes from the native name for this species along the Madeira River in Brazil, the fish also occurs in Colombia and Peru.

References

Hyphessobrycon Tetras of Brazil Taxa named by Henry Weed Fowler Fish described in 1913 Freshwater fish of Peru Fish of Bolivia {{Characidae-stub