Breeding Tetras - Seeking Advice/Experiences
- Thread starter sailedNJ
- Start date
Hey LiquidPyro, I was hoping you'd post again soon. I was looking forward to hearing about how that API Anti-fungal med worked out for you.
As for me, well I haven't gotten any eggs either, but I'm still keeping at it.
I've attached pics of my breeding set up for my little project (sorry for the low quality pics, my camera is not high-end & I'm not much of a photographer).
1st pic is the 10g where I keep my males & females separated. I've been conditioning them on baby brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, & supplementing all that with a good crushed flake food.
2nd pic is the 10g "fry" tank (when I finally get some). I said "icksnay on the marbles" like both you a jetajockey suggested & I made an egg trap instead. I had come across a good instructions for a DIY egg trap while Googling, which I later noticed just happened to be the same one jetajockey had posted sometime earlier on these forums.
3rd pic is just one of the brine shrimp hatcheries that I'm using to keep live food handy for conditioning.
The neons seem happy & active so I'm hoping for some eggs this coming weekend when I plan on trying again (females are swelling up again). I've also been diluting their water a bit with distilled water to get the ph & gh down a bit in hopes that this will result in success this time around.
As for me, well I haven't gotten any eggs either, but I'm still keeping at it.
I've attached pics of my breeding set up for my little project (sorry for the low quality pics, my camera is not high-end & I'm not much of a photographer).
1st pic is the 10g where I keep my males & females separated. I've been conditioning them on baby brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, & supplementing all that with a good crushed flake food.
2nd pic is the 10g "fry" tank (when I finally get some). I said "icksnay on the marbles" like both you a jetajockey suggested & I made an egg trap instead. I had come across a good instructions for a DIY egg trap while Googling, which I later noticed just happened to be the same one jetajockey had posted sometime earlier on these forums.
3rd pic is just one of the brine shrimp hatcheries that I'm using to keep live food handy for conditioning.
The neons seem happy & active so I'm hoping for some eggs this coming weekend when I plan on trying again (females are swelling up again). I've also been diluting their water a bit with distilled water to get the ph & gh down a bit in hopes that this will result in success this time around.
Hey thats great looking setup!
I will get some pics up of mine soon as well
One question for you though, what is on top of your egg trap? Is it a live plant of some kind?
I will get some pics up of mine soon as well
One question for you though, what is on top of your egg trap? Is it a live plant of some kind?
Say good luck with this ! I am going to try and bred tetas also so I will be following this .
Best of luck.
I have rummy nose , cardinals , emperor's , black neons , red eyes , serpeas , again good luck.
Best of luck.
I have rummy nose , cardinals , emperor's , black neons , red eyes , serpeas , again good luck.
Thanks!
That stuff sitting on top of my egg trap is just wool yarn ($2 - $3 @ any of the big marts). Originally I made some "spawning mops" but after further research & inquiries I realized that they were more suitable for breeding other egg layers (those with adhesive eggs) & not tetras.
The 1st pic is of one of the 5 spawning mops I made. The 2nd pic is of a separated yarn strand.
I undid a spawning mop (all I needed to undo was 1 to get a sufficient amount of yarn) & took about only half of the individual strands of yarn & separated those. I then tied those separated strands together & tied them to my egg trap to get those clumps that somewhat resemble java moss.
Initially when my tetras spawn, I want them to spawn over those & have the egg trap do its' job. After the fry hatch however, I'll remove that "fake java moss" & replace it with real java moss from the holding tank. Real java moss contains infusoria on it, which the fry will eat & is a good way to supplement their diet.
You're right, my water is too hard to breed neons.
As for the lighting, that was just for the pics. The lighting as you see it is normally at less than half of that intensity. I tried taking those pics at the normal lighting intensity & I kept on getting reflections in the glass that made it hard to see inside the tank.
As for my water hardness, I've been diluting my water with distilled water. Initially I performed 3 water changes, 2 gallons per change, over a 6 day span (every other day) on the 10g tank. This resulted in kh & gh readings of about 4. Subsequently I've been performing 20% weekly water changes using 1 1/4 gallons distilled water & 3/4 treated tap water, & topping off with treated tap water in between water changes. This has resulted in consistent kh & gh readings of 4. I'm hoping that at these readings I'll be able to get my neons to spawn (I've read of others getting their neons to spawn at similar readings)
I was originally planning on using a "water softener pillow" like this one to soften my water a bit, but then after some research I decided against it.
The whole concept of softening your water is to remove excessive minerals etc from your water. And being as I could not determine how exactly this "pillow" would accomplish this task I decided against it. The packaging doesn't mention much about how exactly this is accomplished so until I get further details explaining how the pillow works I'll hold off on it (I might just return it to the store & pick it up again later if I determine it's OK to use).
What I don't want to do is soften my water by adding anything to my water (e.g. "PH Down or other chemicals like that). Adding driftwood & peat moss are fine for lowering Ph & making your water more acidic (I've got no problem with adding either of those, I already use peat moss in my HOB). But you can have acidic water that is hard. Acidic water that is referred to as "soft" based merely on it's PH level is really a misnomer when you get to understanding the water chemistry a bit more. Using distilled water to dilute your water seems more viable since distilled water is void of the minerals that contribute to water's gh lvls, so that's why I've gone that route.
I might start a separate thread asking about others experiences using these "water softener pillows". I might even reach out to API & see if they can email me a more detailed explanation on how exactly their product accomplishes this. If I like what I hear i might reconsider giving the pillow a shot.
Thank you ryukin, I'll be needing all the luck I can get :thumbsup:
You've got a very nice selection of tetras to choose from (to breed). All except for the rummy nose tetras. I have a small school of them myself (& I love them, very neat little fish) but after some research I found out that they are extremely difficult to breed (even for professional breeders). They require to have been kept in ideal breeding conditions for their entire life span in order to get them to spawn. Even after they spawn, their fry are considerably more difficult to rear than those of other tetras. It's ashame because they really are one of my favorite tetras.
You've got a very nice selection of tetras to choose from (to breed). All except for the rummy nose tetras. I have a small school of them myself (& I love them, very neat little fish) but after some research I found out that they are extremely difficult to breed (even for professional breeders). They require to have been kept in ideal breeding conditions for their entire life span in order to get them to spawn. Even after they spawn, their fry are considerably more difficult to rear than those of other tetras. It's ashame because they really are one of my favorite tetras.
Yeah I read that ....
Yeah I read that ....
I didn't follow this thread earlier but I have some old methylene blue, I think it may be 1 of those "state of Cali recognizes this as a carcinogen". AFAIK it doesn't "go bad". But also AFAIK, tetras need low pH, low KH but it's all down to luck, so GL to you! people do get tetras to breed sometimes...you never know...
