Black Widow Tetras

These tetras were the ones that got me hooked on the entire Characin group. From reading about them ages ago, I read that pretty much all fish available for the hobby are captive-bred from a trio originally imported to Germany. I don't know to what extent this is true, but it would explain the disappointing adult colouration of these otherwise beautiful tetras.

My question: does anyone know anything about current commercial breeding of these tetras and whether wild ones do indeed maintain their black colouration into much older age than the ones we are familiar with now?

 

They are cool if kept in a group of 4 or more.
Their color does fade to a grayish color when fully grown.
The females tend to be bigger than the males.

This is just info from what I have read on them.

 

Black widow and black skirt? Same fish?

 

Yeah, I have kept them and know how the usual ones that we can buy turn out, I'm just wondering if wild ones would keep their colour longer, and maybe if breeding with some wild ones would help to improve the genetic potential of available fish.

@Troyfish: Yeah those are the same fish. "Black Phantoms" are similar but not the same fish, and also really beautiful.

 

Bump, can anyone shed some light on this?