Ember Tetras spawning?

gmh

gmh

AC Members
Feb 5, 2007
2,652
7
38
71
Santa Barbara area
As I sat down to check out my 20 gallon I noticed two of my Embers writhing around each other in the center of the tank. They were really going at it, rubbing along side or going nose to nose, all sorts of contortions. It was borderline violent and I wasn't sure if they were spawning or fighting. But if another fish wandered by one of them would chase it away and then dart back to resume the elaborate rubbing, bumping and dancing. This went on pretty much nonstop for the 30 minutes I was able to watch.
A couple of hours later the Embers all seem to be one happy family and there are no eggs that I can see. I'm pretty sure they were at least trying to spawn. It was quite a show.
 
How cool!! I wish they would spawn and you'd have so many babies you'd have to sell some of them. I would love to have ember tetras. I can't ever find any of them.
 
They were selling ember tetras for 67 cents at petsmart since they were trying to clear them, That "Fight" you were describing sounded like a courtship dance but what is your fauna and do you have any plants in there in order for tetras to breed they must have a heavily planted tank and a group of about 12.
 
Sounds like courtship to me! You may want to get a spawning mop for the top of the tank and some moss for somewhere on the bottom and give it a go! I have about 15 in my 55G tank and both corners of the tank are planted with crypt usteriana which has leaves so long that they get to the surface of the tank and then grow over the top of the tank providing a big umbrella effect. That's where they do their little courtship, under those leaves. The embers are so little that I imagine it would be really difficult to see any eggs. This group is in with my sids so I'm sure I'll never see an ember fry. I have a larger group of embers in my 75G but no plants cascading over the top so if there's courtship behavior going on in there, it's taking place in the thick of the other plants and not so obvious.
 
I had to pay 3 bucks apiece for mine. They were spawning in front of a java moss covered piece of wood.
This morning I see what appear to be tiny eggs scattered widely along the wood and moss and a clump of a few eggs on a piece of gravel. Their chances of hatching are probably nil given my hard water, but I'm tempted to mix in more RO and see what happens in the future.
Anyone every had Embers successfully spawn?
 
That's really exciting news!!!!! You don't find very much info at all about them anywhere on the internet, I've never read any reports of anyone tank raising them. If it's just the water you are worried about, my suggestion to you would be just leave it be, don't change the water parameters now that the eggs are there. Take the chance that your conditions were good for spawning and just may be fine for hatching! They may eat the tiny fry as well which would drive me right to setting up a 5G and moving the eggs out!
 
pinkertd, this tank is mostly java fern, moss and wood. I do have some bulbs that are starting to sprout and maybe I'll try a spawning mop. But I wonder if it's even feasable to actually breed these guys in an aquarium. Will find out I guess.
 
Gosh, you did breed them! Getting a fish to be in condition to spawn, and having the tank be right for spawning is half the battle, no doubt about it! Is there a lot of moss in there for them to hide? The moss will also contain tiny, tiny particles for them to feed off of in the beginning.
 
There is not as much moss as I would like. Wish I still had the big blobs of moss I used to have.
I recently added salt to the water to deal with a touch of ich. Probably a teaspoon of salt per gallon still in there and temp above 80 degrees. Also added a layer of new gravel.
 
Well I wouldn't count out them hatching yet. What is your ph and do you know your hardness? I can cite you countless articles that tell you you have to have soft water, RO water to keep discus as well as to hatch discus eggs and it's not true. That may be the parameters in the wild, but our fish are long ago removed from the wild and I (and many other people) have alkaline water, mine is 7.6-7.8, moderately hard and the eggs hatch no problems!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom