The little pet fish that saved a town in the Amazon

Planet Money

NPR

News, Business

4.6 • 30.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The cardinal tetra is one of the most popular pet fish in the world. They look like little red and blue sequins. You've almost certainly seen them at the pet store or the fish tank at your dentist's office. They're everywhere.

Not so long ago, most of the world's supply of cardinals came from just one place. It's a little town deep in the rainforests of Brazil, where locals still catch these fish by hand. But the business that this town has relied on for decades has come under threat.

Recently, we hopped on a plane to see this unusual economy for ourselves — and, two different visions for how to save it.

For more information about these fish, check out Project Piaba.

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This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo. It was co-reported and produced by Luis Gallo. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:06.0	A couple weeks ago, Planet Money producer Luis Gayo and I found ourselves on a dark, glassy river in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.
0:15.3	We climbed into a small canoe.
0:18.2	Jeff, don't tilt us.
0:20.5	After settling in a bit.
0:21.7	You have to be in the middle.
0:22.9	Weight always in the middle.
0:24.1	We headed up river.
0:26.9	And we're off.
0:28.7	We were here to investigate a change that's been happening in the worldwide multi-billion
0:34.2	dollar business of pretty little fish.
0:37.2	You know, those tropical fish you often see at the pet store, the neon-colored ones, the
0:42.3	ones that shimmer-like sequins, some of them actually come from the wild.
0:46.3	In fact, one of the world's most popular species of pet fish is caught right here in the
0:52.3	Brazilian Amazon. Our guide for the day is Valderi's Cicada.
0:57.0	People call him Deco.
0:58.0	Today we're going to do a venture,
1:00.0	see what we can get ready for an adventura,
1:04.0	an adventure to see what we can catch.
1:07.0	Will you ask Deco just to tell us a little bit more
1:10.0	about where we're going? You more about where we're going?
1:12.0	Our producer, Luis, who speaks Portuguese, actually he speaks a lot of languages, was interpreting.
	...

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