09/24/2025
A truly fascinating fish, with more to them than what meets the eye! 👀 🐟
The Blind Cave Tetra (or Mexican Cave Tetra) lives in deep caves in the wild, anywhere from Texas to Mexico. There is no need for eye sight when you live in pitch black caves! As you'd expect, these tetras are completely blind. They are actually born WITH eyes, but these eyes are soon reabsorbed back into the body at only a few weeks old. There is a variation of them that actually does have eyes, although you do not generally see this version on the market.
Blind Cave Tetras are a larger tetra, needing a minimum of 20 gallons for a school of 5. They typically reach up to 4 inches and certainly prefer dim lighting, resembling their natural habitat. Sand or small gravel substrates are preferred as they typically poke around at the substrate to find their meals (although many will learn to eat off of the surface of the water too). They will eat anything that they can get their little mouths on, from flakes, pellets, frozen, to live foods. They also tend to eat any eggs laid by other fish that may be in the substrate.
You may be wondering, since they're blind, don't they swim into the glass walls, decorations or other fish? The short answer is no! ...They actually very rarely swim into the tank sides, decor or other tank mates; Though they may nip at tank mates when first introduced into a new aquarium thinking they are "fast food"😉. Using a more sensitive lateral line system (organ) to detect vibrations and water pressure changes, their chemosensory organs for taste, and having such a strong sense of smell, their lack of sight is rarely noticed by on lookers(if at all!).
Since Mexican Blind Cave Tetras tend to be fast paced and more on the "semi-aggressive" side when it comes to tetras. Please do not assume that since they cannot see, any tank mate will do. These fish are FAST and eager eaters...no eyes, no problem! We recommend keeping them with similar sized fish with a 'like' personality or a smaller quick moving species. For example, zebra or leopard danios, tiger barbs, cherry barbs, gold barbs, LARGE shrimp, corydora catfish, ember tetras, Columbian tetras, etc.
*Please keep in mind that we cannot guarantee the behaviour or attitudes of each and every fish*
