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Does anyone have any experience with breeding Neon Tetras?

Chris

I don't have any experience, but here's a website that gives you information on breeding and sexing them:

Breeding
Sexing

hope this helps

EDIT: Information taken from this]http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile17.html[/link] page. In the future, please denote the source of copied information, as per this announcement: [link

Egg scatterer, requires soft, very clean water. Failures in breeding are in most cases due to unsuitable water conditions. To spawn them, you will need a small tank placed in a dark spot as the eggs seem to be light sensitive, a 2 inch layer of half inch rock and some bunches of fine textured live plants like Myriophyllium are suitable as the spawning medium. Only young fish should be used for breeding and at least 5 fish (with a ratio of 2-1 males) that have been separated (put the females in the tank that will be used for spawning) for 2 days and fed some live foods. The temperature should not rise above 750 (21 to 23c) Keep a lid on this container as they will jump out. Keep the breeders together for 24 hours and then remove them. They usually spawn early in the morning. The clear eggs are laid among the plants and barely stick to them. In 22 to 26 hours the eggs hatch and the fry are very hard to spot, but appear 3-4 days later at which time they are free swimming and will need to be fed infusoria. The species is not very prolific and A good spawn would be 40-50 fry

Breeding Neon Tetras is a challenge even to a veteran aquarist because the requirements of the species are so stringent.

Firstly, they need soft, slightly acidic water, and it's probably a good idea to utilise peat filtration for conditioning the breeding fishes for up to 3 months beforehand, making the transition gradual if the water in which they are being maintained isn't already within the required parameter range. Additional humic acid content using something like Tetra's Blackwater Tonic is probably a good idea. Basically, Neons will NOT breed in water that doesn't conform to fairly stringent parameters - you're looking at a pH of around 6.0 (which is pretty acidic by most aquarist's standards, and the sort of figure usually quoted for breeding Discus) and a hardness level no greater than a lowly 2°dH. if your tap water is hard and alkaline, you're looking at using RO water and conditioning it afterwards with peat filtration.

The article quoted above that says Neons should not be bred at temperatures above 75 degrees F makes sense if you consider the wild situation - the fishes migrate upstream to smaller and smaller creeks that adjoin the larger river systems of their home, until they reach small streams that are completely enclosed from above by rainforest canopy. Light levels in these waters are so low that humans would need night vision goggles to see effectively. Waters that are shaded that effectively from the sun are likely to be cooler than exposed river waters, so the caution against too high a temperature makes sense in the light of this.

Thanks to this choice of breeding strategem, over the millennia, the eggs of the Neon Tetra have become photosensitive - they WILL die if exposed to bright light, and the same applies to the Cardinal Tetra, which has evolved a similar breeding strategem.

As well as spending considerable time adapting the prospective parents to the correct water, they need to be conditioned with appropriate feeding. I don't have a list of typical stomach contents of wild Neons to hand, but it's a safe bet that the feeding régime should involve as great a variety of foodstuffs as possible, with live foods such as Daphnia forming a significant component in the 14 days leading up to the breeding attempt.

Because of the need for very low light levels in the breeding aquarium, the only plant that would be suitable (and which would survive the period of darkness that the eggs need) would be Java Moss. Failing that, nylon spawning mops could be used. Do NOT try using a plant such as Cabomba that needs intense light to survive - it will die and foul the aquarium once the aquarium is darkened.

Once spawning has concluded (and in the darkened setup it will be difficult to observe) the aquarium should be darkened TOTALLY for at least 48 hours. After this period, check VERY CAREFULLY for the presence of fry - the usual trick to minimise light damage is to use a bicycle rear light, which emits red light, to illuminate the aquarium briefly while checking for fry (red light usage of this kind will be familiar to anyone who has operated a photographic dark room). Make the exposure as brief as possible, and once fry are spotted, make the exposure of the fry to increasing light levels gradual. It's not overdoing it to spread the photo-acclimatisation of the fry over 14 days.

This of course is going to have a significant impact on aquarium maintenance. Water changes, for example, are going to be problematic, because you can't lift the lid if the aquarium is in a well lit room or it's a bright, sunny day. The trick here is to put in place a siphon tube (with the end covered by a piece of filter sponge to stop fry being sucked out. Arrange for the siphon tube to be fixed in place so that the aquarium lid doesn't have to be lifted - use assorted plastic clips to hold it in place. When removing water from the aquarium, use in the conventional fashion, and direct the output to a handy container. When adding the new water, the trick here is to attach a funnel to the free end of the siphon tube, and add the new water via that. To make sure that all will run smoothly, set up a breeding aquarium without fish, and test the water change gear in normal daylight to iron out any bugs in the system, so that when you commit yourself to a 'live' breeding aquarium with Neons, you'll be able to perform water changes for the fry in a practised manner. If you can fit some kind of tap to the tubing to shut off the flow and prevent capilliary action accidents draining the aquarium when it is unattended, this is probably a good idea too.

You could probably get away with rearing the baby Neons on Liquifry once they're free swimming, but ideally, you shoudl start infusoria cultures in rotation ready to provide them with living food, as they'll grow somewhat faster if they have a mixture of live infusorians and Liquifry. Small amounts often is the maxim, particularly where the Liquifry is concerned, because overdoing that will pollute the aquarium in no time. It's not overdoing things, by the way, to feed the babies ten times per day, then removing excess food in the case of Liquifry (you won't have to do this with infusoria, they'll stay alive until the babies eat them).

Be advised that if you embark upon this exercise, the chances of failure first time round are high. As I said at the start, this is a challenge even for a veteran aquarist. If you succeed in raising a batch of baby Neons, then you will have come a LONG way as a fishkeeper.

The beauty of this project is that it can be performed in limited space - you don't need to spent vast sums on huge aquaria as is the case for Discus, and it's possible to rig up some perfectly serviceable 'Heath Robinson' gadgets to facilitate your breeding project if you're running on a tight budget. However, if your tap water is hard and alkaline, you're effectively shot down in flames from the word go, unless you can obtain RO water.

If you think it's within your grasp to achieve a successful spawn, and you're fired up with the ambition, then I'd encourage you to try. But plan ahead LONG AND HARD before committing yourself to the project, because time spent planning such mundane details as aquarium siting before you spend a penny setting things up will possibly save heartache further down the line. Planning how you will black out the aquarium is important too - you'll have to devise some means, and test it in a "dummy run" with an unoccupied aquarium to iron out the bugs.

I would, in addition, consider choosing the nursery aquarium filtration system with care. You don't need a strong current for the first 28 days or so, so an air-driven system will do fine. Make sure that any entry and exit tubes are capped with filter sponge to prevent fry losses. Time spent making sure that nit picking details such as this are taken care of will go a fair way toward enhancing your chances of success.

Finally, take detailed notes along every step of the way. That way, if something goes wrong, you'll know about it and will be able to plan ahead and deal with it next time round. You can NEVER be too fussy or nit-picking in this area. If you can arrange for someone to videotape you every step of the way, then watch the playbacks, you'll probably find in an instant better ways of doing things.

Oh, and if you go for it, best of luck.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Wow... Very Informative. Did you write that?

Chris

Get a large school, then wait for them to pair up. It works!

Neon tetras don't form pairs except at breeding time, and only then for the spawning event. It is also difficult to encourage spawning, as the above post from Cali makes easy to see. An aquarium with acidic and very soft water for breeding is almost mandatory, as is a seperate tank for the fry (unless the parents are removed). Breeding neon tetras isn't easy in aquariums.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Well, Cali's post makes it sound really hard so I might want to try another fish. But if i do breed Neons how many is a big enough school for a 10g? Thanks.

Chris

a 10g is a little on the small side for breeding. A school is usually 6 or more fish, which would do fine in a 10g, but it there is always the chance you could wind up with the same sex, and crowded corders arnt the best way to encourage breeding. For neons, I think if you are going to breed you would need a lot more than 6 and at least a 20g.

Inky

Yes, Garofoli, I write posts like that off the top of my head frequently .... as those who have seen me in action since I joined will testify

When Adam resurrects the articles, take a peek at some of mine

Oh, I wouldn't abandon your Neon Tetra breedin project, after all, the things in life that are really satisfying tend to require a certain amount of input beforehand

However, do NOT be discouraged if you fail. Instead, regard it as a learning experience, keep trying, and if you hit upon the magic combination of success, give yourself a HUGE pat on the back. Also, take LOTS of notes, so that you can share your success here with everyone else!

Oh, by the way, Cardinals require the same breeding setup for the same reasons - native waters are soft and acidic, and the eggs are photosensitive.

Other Characin breeding challenges include:

Glowlight Tetras - it's easier to persuade them to spawn than Neons or Cardinals, but raising the fry is the hard part, because the fry are extremely sensitive to carbonate hardness, and have to be gradually acclimatised to increasing carbonate hardness. Your nursery aquarium needs to have a carbonate hardness as low as 0.5 degrees KH for the first 7 days of the life of the fry or they will die;

Rummy Nosed Tetras - can be difficult to persuade to spawn, tend to do a LOT better if the breeding aquarium is set up as for Neons with soft, acid water, but the real headache is the fry growth rate - Rummies are among the slowest growing of all Characin fry, and it can take as much as twelve weeks to bring them to the point where they can eat reasonable sized morsels;

Ornate Tetra - always been difficult, to the point where some aquarists consider it more luck than judgement if you DO get them to spawn;

Black Morpho Tetra (Poecilocharax weitzmani) - Bruce Moomaw told me a few home truths about this fish, which needs live food on a constant basis just for maintenance, and has some very stringent breeding requirements.

Add to this list the oddities belonging to genera such as Glandulocauda, Mimagoniates and Pseudocroynopoma, and this will be enough to keep even a veteran Characin specialist busy for some time ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks. What about Threadfin Rainbows?

Chris

Anything Rainbowfish related, you go here. This is probably the best site on the whole of Planet Earth specialising in Rainbows. If you can't find what you're looking for here, chances are it hasn't been documented by anybody.

Click 'Contents', then scroll for the link that says 'Breeding Rainbowfishes'. Then go back to 'Contents', look up Iratherina under 'Rainbowfish Species' (click on the genus and it'll take you to the page with the fish in question).

Your biggest problem with these critters is food size. They have small mouths, and morsels (live or prepared food) should be sized accordingly or they'll just ignore the food.

Enjoy


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002