''Neoheterandria elegans'' or Tiger Teddy is a small live-bearing fish within the family

Poeciliidae The Poeciliidae are a family of freshwater fishes of the order Cyprinodontiformes, the tooth-carps, and include well-known live-bearing aquarium fish, such as the guppy, molly, platy, and swordtail. The original distribution of the family was t ...

. This is the same family that includes familiar

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

fishes such as guppies and swordtails, although ''Neoheterandria elegans'' is not nearly as popular as an aquarium fish. The fish is found in the Truando River in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. Males grow to and females grow to . The front half of the fish is mostly silver but the rear has alternating gold and black vertical bars. Like most

poeciliids The Poeciliidae are a family of freshwater fishes of the order Cyprinodontiformes, the tooth-carps, and include well-known live-bearing aquarium fish, such as the guppy, molly, platy, and swordtail. The original distribution of the family was t ...

, ''Neoheterandria elegans'' is a

livebearer Livebearers are aquarium fish that retain the eggs inside the body and give birth to live, free-swimming young. Among aquarium fish, livebearers are nearly all members of the family Poeciliidae and include guppies, mollies, platies and swordtails ...

. The male uses his modified anal fin, or gonopodium, to deliver sperm to the female. The fertilized eggs grow within the female until they hatch, and the young are released free swimming. The gonopodium of ''Neoheterandria elegans'' males has a long, bony rod that projects forward and downward. This is main distinguishing feature between fish of the genus ''Neoheterandria'' and fish of the genus '' Xenophallus'', whose males have gonopodia that project either to the right or to the left. Unlike some male livebearer, which court the females they wish to breed with, male ''Neoheterandria elegans'' copulate by thrusting his gonopodium at the female's vent. Rather than dropping her whole brood at once, like the guppy or swordtail, the female ''Neoheterandria elegans'' generally drops between 2 and 4 fry each day for several days. Aquarium keeping is relatively easy, but the temperature needs to remain above 23 degrees

Celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...

. Unlike some Poeciliids, ''Neoheterandria elegans'' tolerates soft water well. Due to their small size, they can be maintained in small tanks.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3753171 Poeciliidae Endemic fauna of Colombia Freshwater fish of Colombia Fishkeeping Fish described in 1916