Piabucina astrigata
Text & Images by Robbie Kirkup, Proprietor,  Aquatic Fanatic
Click on images for bigger view

I picked up this characin species at a dealer in Holland, a wild import from South America.
Classified as a contaminant, by the dealer, as so many species which are collected in small numbers and are shipped to the hobby among shoaling fish (this used to be a great pastime in our local shops when they used to import wild fish direct).
I picked out 3 characin species which ranged in size from 25 - 40mm (often referred to as 'salmon' by the collectors), for the price of the imported shoal tetras, a bargain.
Two of these species images were used in the Christmas quiz 2007(question 19), one remains unknown.
The entire batch were housed in a 70 litre established tank with Danios, small Synodontis & Neolibias.
After settling in, the 'Lebiasina astrigata' were easily identified by the Baench atlas, the '' genus has two species according to FBAS standards, both similar in appearance with spots, however a search on Google will show four species, though you may have to play with the spelling or miss spelling as is normally the case for any inter net searches, that said no write up, is to be found!
And all books I have seen show the juvenile colour form, which is fine as most imports will be young fish.
It is similar in appearance to L. multimaculata, astrigata has 9 spots or less along the body, multimaculata has 10 or more and lacks the dorsal spot.
However a major problem occurred in the tank with an amount of fin nipping taking place, some thing I don't tolerate in a community aquaria. So an elimination process took place and the Lebiasina were my second and correct choice to remove, the four fish were housed with Jordinella floridae in a 20" x 15" x 15" aquarium, the coldwater killies have a reputation as fin nippers themselves, but seemed to tolerate each other in different levels of the tank.
However the aggression did not stop there as the characins began to nip each other, twice I picked up a fish from the floor and returned to the tank, eventually the dominant male evicted the other three from the tank, which he now 'happily' shares with the Jordinella.
In 8 month he has grown to 90mm, which meant a trip to a show, and in August he was taking to the Solway Open, a rare sunny day, as I carried the fish in from the car it caught the eye of a few hobbyists as it sparkled green & gold, I never notice these natural colours in my fish house, illuminated by warm white tubes.
However these quickly vanished on entry to hall (did you now that the Solway venue is being considered as a film shoot by Hollywood, as the bat cave).
The fish took second place and has since won the characin class twice!
As with most characins feeding is not a problem a wide range of foods are eagely taking.
A search on the internet or Baench atlases will show these four species, the genus was described in 1897, spelling has been left as is 'Google search' ! ! Labiasina bimaculata Labiasina boruca Labiasina multimaculata .
Bad Apples
As with barbs a few fin nipping species can get the 'tetra' group a bad name, but really I have only had problems with about 5%.
Saying that, retail outlets will stock thousands of little 'Freddie Krugers' usually in the shape of 'serpae tetras' and there man made colour forms, as well as similer/same Hypessobrycon 'eos' & 'callistus', equally nasty. Man made names i.e. moss green barb rather than tiger barb will try to drive a sale rather than caution!
(the serpae tetra is a rarely imported tetra and may not be a fin nipper!)
Leporinus vittatus was an outstanding show fish, tubular striped body, behaved more like a Labeo but even the show men gave up on this one!
But even small species of characins, can be equally as vicious & brazen, Rachoviscus crassiceps grows smaller than an emperor tetra, similar in shape and pinky red in colour. Aphyocharax paraguayensis a neon tetra shape & sized tetra with attractive black & white fin flashes a great show fish, but an assassin in a community aquaria, so secretive in its attacks you have to sit and stare into your tank!
Its red skirted cousin 'rathbuni' is another one not to be trusted.
A search on the internet or Baench atlases will show these four species, the genus was described in 1897, spelling has been left as is ! ! Labiasina bimaculata, Labiasina boruca, Labiasina multimaculata.
Editor's Note: Lebiasina astrigata (Regan 1903) is a synonym of Piabucina astrigata, Regan 1903