Hi folks
(skip to the bottom for my basic question if you don't need all my pre-ramble!)
I recently lucked upon some yellowtail congo tetras (Hemigrammopetersius caudalis) and added them to my 55 gal, which I am trying to build loosely as a west-african-river (sort of) biotope. (Includes kribbs, a synodontis of some sort, pleco :-( , debaui cats)
I've never really had tetras before (cichlids, catfish), and am quite enjoying them. They are always moving! It is sort of hard to keep tabs on them! Anyway... I'll chat another time... to not get bogged down:
I think they may be trying to spawn. While they schooled quite dociley the first few weeks, the males have adopted much more defined coloring, and the last few days, the fish have been all over the place, chasing eachother, wiggling at eachother, pairing up along the substrate.
The info I have is that they will scatter thier eggs, which are very tiny and will hatch in a few days.
Eggs will not last a few days in this tank - with the kribbs constantly sifting the bottom, and the syno cruising around at night. Also, the kribbs don't really let the tetras stay near the bottom for very long.
Sooo... I would guess I have two options:
- stay at ready with a siphon, try to see any eggs as they drop, and suck them up to another tank before the kribbs get them?
or:
-move a pair, trio, or all the tetras to a new (20gal) tank?
Option 2 is appealing - but would the move throw them off of thier spawning behavior? I could lessen the shock by using a lot of the water from the 55 and planting it well.
Thanks for your thoughts all!
Keegan
tetra newbie
(skip to the bottom for my basic question if you don't need all my pre-ramble!)
I recently lucked upon some yellowtail congo tetras (Hemigrammopetersius caudalis) and added them to my 55 gal, which I am trying to build loosely as a west-african-river (sort of) biotope. (Includes kribbs, a synodontis of some sort, pleco :-( , debaui cats)
I've never really had tetras before (cichlids, catfish), and am quite enjoying them. They are always moving! It is sort of hard to keep tabs on them! Anyway... I'll chat another time... to not get bogged down:
I think they may be trying to spawn. While they schooled quite dociley the first few weeks, the males have adopted much more defined coloring, and the last few days, the fish have been all over the place, chasing eachother, wiggling at eachother, pairing up along the substrate.
The info I have is that they will scatter thier eggs, which are very tiny and will hatch in a few days.
Eggs will not last a few days in this tank - with the kribbs constantly sifting the bottom, and the syno cruising around at night. Also, the kribbs don't really let the tetras stay near the bottom for very long.
Sooo... I would guess I have two options:
- stay at ready with a siphon, try to see any eggs as they drop, and suck them up to another tank before the kribbs get them?
or:
-move a pair, trio, or all the tetras to a new (20gal) tank?
Option 2 is appealing - but would the move throw them off of thier spawning behavior? I could lessen the shock by using a lot of the water from the 55 and planting it well.
Thanks for your thoughts all!
Keegan
tetra newbie
