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My son's tetras are getting more comfortable in their new home, zipping about when they think no one's looking and gathering at the front of the tank in the morning, waiting patiently for my son to feed them breakfast. When they see him they seem to get a little excited... my husband doesn't agree, but to me their behavior seems a little different. They've even started swimming to the top to feed!! Except for the cardinals, they're the lazy ones who wait for the food to fall... I just hope they're eating enough...

Two of the glowlite tetras have been chasing each other around the tank. I can't tell if it's the same two all the time, it looks like they are, and I can't tell the sex of either. They don't nip at each other, they just chase each other around once in a while... seems totally innocent.

Is this just a friendly game of tag, or are they feeling frisky?? We can't keep anymore fish in the tank, if little eggs showed up I wouldn't know what to do with them.

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

I my Betta tank the Cardinals wait until the food gets into the middle level then they attack the food.
In my big tank the CLs especially are always waiting for their morning feed.

By watching the tank like you are`if there are any problems they are picked up extremly quickly.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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I just can't go without peeking in on them at least three times a day. They really are cute.


So does the two tetras behavior sound like they're just playing around, or will I need to watch out for little eggs soon??

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

I don't think you have to worry about eggs. Most fish eat their eggs anyway, and it would be extremely rare for any to escape. It is just normal fish behavior.

Thanks... I have no idea what courting fish look like. They are definitely more active now, they seem to be looking back at me when I look at them.

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

you're hooked on fish.

Is the glowlight being chased a little chunky (fat)? If so, its female. Males are skinnier and they have white on the tips of their fins. They are also smaller than females.

I have 7 glowlights and they chase each other all the time. Usually its a male chasing a female.

*Kristin*

Yep... I am definitely hooked on these little fish!!

It looks like all of them have white on their tips, but some are definitely smaller than the others. A small one was chasing a bigger one around.

Caught the cardinals doing the same thing today!!

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

In the case of your Glowlights, you'll know if they're spawning, because their spawning act is very comspicuous - male and female perform a mutual 'barrel roll' side by side and the female emits the eggs whilst inverted!

Keep an eye on the Glowlights, because if the chasing seems to be directed toward fine leaved plants, then they're definitely gearing up for a possible spawning. If you feed them live Daphnia and then raise the temperature to 80 degrees F, chances are they'll spawn.

Persuading your Glowlights to spawn is one matter, but saving fry is a much more difficult proposition. Glowlight Tetra fry are extremely sensitive to carbonate hardness, and will die if the carbonate hardness is greater than a lowly 1 degree DH. They need to be acclimatised over a 7 to 14 day period to increasing carbonate hardness, in very small steps, otherwise they die off at an alarming rate.

There is a an article - Breeding The Glowlight Tetra by Stanislav Frank, in the March 1977 issue of TFH magazine (which I have before me as I type this). The artice can be found on pages 21 to 26. Here is a relevant quote from the article:

In an endeavour to find the answer, I tried out all sorts of breeding water combinations with respect to carbonate hardness, non-carbonate hardness, and pH. It turned out that embryonic and larval development are virtually unaffected by and independent of NON-carbonate hardness within a range of 1 to 8 DH. On the other hand, if carbonate hardness is too high the mortality rate of the embryos inside the egg membrane increases considerably and the surviving larvae, which are comparatively well developed, are unable to fill the swim bladder when the time comes for them to swim free. They make abrupt jerking movements in an oblique position with the head upwards. Death usually follows within a few hours, usually before the larvae have begun to search for food. If the total hardness (NON-carbonate hardness) is too low (less than 1 DH), many embryos and larvae suffer from constitutional (non-infectious) abdominal dropsy and become incapable of further development: they generally die before swimming free. (In this case the water has the effect of a hypotonic solution).

Some literature points out the need for adding peat moss extract to the water. According to my own observations, however, this addition is not wholly beneficial. In small amounts peat extract does no harm, but when the water composition is unfavourable its presence does not help. furthermore, too high a concentration of peat extract (intended to have a bacteriostatic effect) has a toxic effect on all Glowlight Tetra eggs in the process of development. I have observed a 100% correct dewelopment of embryos and larvae of the Glowlight Tetra in water with a total hardness of 2 to 4 DH and a carbonate hardness of less than 1 DH. The most favourable pH value lies between 6.4 and 6.8. How one prepares the breeding water is of no consequence ...

Frequent water changes are recommended with respect to the rearing tank, since the fry are very sensitive to high nitrite concentration. They also have to be gradually adapted to the carbonates. About five days after the young have started to swim free I start to add tap water, after letting it stand and making sure it is of the correct composition (about 14 DH total hardness, i.e., 8 DH non-carbonate hardness and 6 Dh carbonate hardness). At first I add water in small daily amounts of 5 to 10 ml, and later 50 to 100 ml per day. By doing this, one prevents any undesirable drop in the pH which otherwise would occur from time to time after heavier feeding in a small tank having practically no carbonate hardness.

The article includes photographs of the spawning pair (including the inverted barrel roll sequence!) and photographs of developing eggs and fry.

Persuading the adults to spawn is, therefore, the easy part of the operation.

Almost forgot - the frequent water changes are performed using water with low carbonate hardness, and the higher hardness water is added afterwars during the acclimatisation period until the fry are ready to take water changes using whole tap water. If your tap water is naturally hard, then it will need softening to remove carbonate hardness (referred to as 'non-permanent hardness' in the literature), but the removal process needs to be selective, and leave the NON-carbonate mineral content untouched. One way of achieving this for those blessed with an RO unit is to add the NON-carbonate minerals in measured quantities to RO water before using it for water changes: for those without an RO unit, boiling the water will remove carbonate hardness.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002