spawning tetras... temperature question

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mrkeeg

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Aug 29, 2003
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Hi all...
When I move my tetras to the spawning tank from the conditioning tank, should it be accompanied by a temperature change?

My yellowtail congos are well fed and coloring up and flashing at eachother a lot in a 55gal community. I have a 20gal long set up with softer, lower pH water and peat filtration... should this tank also be slightly warmer? cooler? Thanks

Keegan
 
I don't believe a temperature drop or raise is needed to trigger spawning, its mostly just conditioning the pair and giving them proper water conditions, however the water conditions are not usually needed for them to spawn, its for the eggs and fry themselves who need the low pH.
 
Thanks NatakuTseng, I've never done this before, but since they were displaying in the comunity tank, I thought I'd give it a go. I've actually spent a stupid amount of time on it now.

Unfortunately, I'm suspecting that my filter media... Laguna pond media... may be buffering my water to a higher pH. I can only get it down to 7.4 or so (even using peat, CO2, and mostly rainwater)... do you think that will be detrimental?

Keegan
 
Chances are you hatch out will just be smaller due to the higher pH. Another option you can try is getting distilled water from wal mart or a grocery store, filter it through peat which will being the pH of that stuff down to 5ish, and then mix it with your tap water, till you get a good pH.
 
Thanks,
Using rainwater should be simmilar to using distilled water, no? I have mostly rainwater in the tank, but cut it with about 25% water from the conditioning tank.. which is partially my tap (well) water... which apparently has a lot of buffering capacity!

Ah well, worth a try... I thnk I'l go transfer them now. I spose I should bag them and slowly add the new tank water to the bag before letting them out... same as acclimitizing new fish?

..if I don't see eggs quite soon... just return the tetras to the conditioning tank, keep feeding heavily, and try again with something a bit different? (ie softer water or something?) Is that how this game is played? *L*.. I'm new to it.

Thanks for the help!

Keegan
 
if your tetras are conditioned and not to spooked by the move, ie better to do the last week of conditioning feeding in spawning tank, a water change that lowers the ph and is abit cooler than the water in the tank will often trigger the spawning of tetras.

this is simulating the effects rain after the dry season would have on the water they are living in as the increased water level makes more places to hide eggs and fry
 
Thanks snake ice.

This is a consideration that had sort of crossed my mind, but really hadn't occurred to me until I did the transfer. For some reason I had the rather peacefully image of me dropping a bit of food, then gracefully swinging my net through my (heavily planted and decorated 55gal comunity) tank and coming up with a net full of tetras.

Of course you wise denizens of the net and faithful fish hobbiests know that it didn't really go down like that. Those little buggers are durn spooky when you start chasing them. I really tried to go easy... though they looked like they were going to hurt themselves freaking out abou the net.

I ended up with 2 healthy females and a male transferred to the spawn tank... I have read that they can be spawned as a couple or as a shoal.. .maybe as 3 too?

They are starting to chilll out a bit.. after a day. I will continue feeding well and let them acclimatize.. if I don't see any breeding (I haven't yet, but I've been busy) I will try the water change... thanks again.
 
It's been a couple days, and the 3 tetras in the spawning tank are still really freaked out. They don't eat really vigorously (even when I try to bribe them with a ton of live daphnia and glassworms!), are very very jumpy, and spend a lot of time trying to swim through the glass.

The water is softer, slightly lower pH, and way peatier than the tank they came from. It is amply filtered.

Any ideas? add more plants to make them feel more comfortable? Try to catch the rest of thier school to join them?

Keegan
 
hmm, I guess the work you put into getting them ready as far as what you fed them is negated by the stress of moveing, except that they are perhaps healthyer and less negatively affected by the move. but the skitishness will have to be unlearned and is part of thier survival knowlege. they might not have actually been eaten by the net but they react that way.
 
Well, I'll keep feeding and monitoring for a while, and add some more plants, see if they mellow out.

I have another question.. but I think I'll post a new thread for it. It's digressed rather from the stated topic here. Thanks for the help guys.

Keegan
 
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