Breeding Tetras - Seeking Advice/Experiences

WOW! Great looking tank, and the fry tank looks great as well!

The thing I don't like about PH adjusters is that I personally am paranoid about putting any chemicals or buffers into the tank. I don't think that this superstition is based in truth, but I'd feel more comfortable with natural solutions (driftwood/ peat) and it would be a cool experiment to see how much each affects the water. In the future you could use this info for other projects that need soft water, and I have a feeling that you'll be an avid fish keeper for a long time. Good luck!
 
Thanks fishorama. I gave up on the methylene blue after it became apparent it was going to be more of a hassle getting my hands on some than it was worth. As long as I can avoid getting fungus on my eggs (i.e. separating fertile eggs from infertile ones in a timely manner etc), I should be OK without it, at least I'm hoping so.

And thanks for the well wishes, like you said "you never know" (until you try) ;)
 
I'm not 100%, but I heard that ghost shrimp are good at keeping the eggs fungus free.
 
Thanks user_name for the compliments on the tanks. Although the object of setting them up was utility & not aesthetics, looks never hurt ;)

And yeah I agree with you on using "additives" to get ideal water parameters. I'm not a big fan of that at all. And I don't like putting anything in my tanks unless I know exactly what it will do to water chemistry. Knowing that something will soften my water isn't enough, I need to know how it will do it before I consider using it.

As for keeping fungus off of eggs, I don't know about ghost shrimp but msjinkzd suggested apple snails. She says she keeps a couple in all of her spawning tanks because they are very effective at eating sterile eggs & leaving the fertile ones untouched. And she knows her inverts so I might have to give apple snails a try sometime. But first things first, I got to get these suckers to start spitting out eggs lol I'm hoping to give it another shot this weekend.
 
Thanks. hhahaha yeah I love that movie....

"I'm a mawg, half man, half dog, I'm my own best friend"
 
I do know how the water softener pillow works, and you're right not to touch it. It replaces Mg++ and Ca++ ions with Na+ in a 1:2 ratio, so actually raises the mineral content of the water. Utter waste of time.

Some people may have had success at GH/KH of 4 but I'd aim for unmeasurable, especially on the GH.
 
KarlTh said:
I do know how the water softener pillow works, and you're right not to touch it. It replaces Mg++ and Ca++ ions with Na+ in a 1:2 ratio, so actually raises the mineral content of the water. Utter waste of time.

Some people may have had success at GH/KH of 4 but I'd aim for unmeasurable, especially on the GH.
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KarlTh, Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Replacing Magnesium & Calcium ions by adding yet another mineral to my water (Sodium) is counter constructive to what I'm trying to accomplish. I'll be returning the pillow to the store & sticking to diluting my water with distilled water & continuing to add/replace peat moss in my filter.

I hear you about the gh/kh readings. I'm aiming to get it as low as I can. I might try increasing the ratio of distilled water to tap water to achieve this or I might add another HOB, stuffed with peat moss, to the tank (I'm already running peat moss in one HOB).

This whole process is a work in progress, but it's one I'm willing to stick with until I accomplish what I set out to do.

Thanks again & if you have any other tips or words of wisdom to share, please do as I can always use them.
 
I sometimes use RCS to keep fungus eggs off of good eggs, but it really isn't as effective as using methylene blue. With non-adhesive eggs, it is easy enough to just use an eye dropper and suck the bad eggs out.

I'd just feed them heavily with live or thawed foods, bloodworms are always good. Then see if they spawn. The only explanation of needing soft water for breeding is that the eggs have a hard time hatching otherwise. If that's the issue then you should still at least get some eggs and can act accordingly if they end up with a low hatch rate. Soft water may also be a trigger for the fish to spawn, but I have no idea about that. In my experience with different danio species, the pH is really not as important as good quality food and clean water.
 
Hey jetajockey, good to have you chime in again (always appreciated & valued).

As for keeping fungus off of eggs, I never knew about RCS being good for that (thanks for the tip), but I was informed that Apple snails do a great job of it as well. But like you said, being that the eggs are non-adhesive, removing affected eggs should be easy enough using an eye dropper.

As for the need for soft water, I think that unlike Danios, with Tetras it's a necessary trigger for them to spawn. At least that is what I'm getting from the literature I've been browsing. I've already been conditioning them with live food (for sometime) & keeping them in excellent water quality conditions albeit not ideal (i.e. acidic AND SOFT). So I can definitely put that theory to the test this weekend & see what happens.

PS - Did you see the pic of my egg trap? You're advice was the inspiration for that ;)
 
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