This species is also known as the ‘spraying’, ‘splashing’ or ‘jumping’ tetra and these names are also sometimes applied to its congeners although none of them exhibit a comparable spawning strategy, simply depositing their eggs among vegetation at or around the water surface.

The genus Brachychalcinus currently contains four other species: B. copei (Steindachner 1882) from the rio Madeira and rio Solimões; B. nummus Böhlke 1958 from the Upper Amazon region in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; B. parnaibae Reis 1989 from the rio Parnaíba basin, and B. retrospina Boulenger 1892 from the Rio Paraguay system.

The group is often referred to collectively as ‘silver dollar tetras’ and tho…