# Neon Tetra breeding



## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

Has anyone ever tried to breed neon tetras? I think this is one of the best fish for the planted tank and the challenge of breeding them is something I'd like to do. However, I've heard that it's pretty difficult, so I thought I would ask this forum.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

It's not really the breeding part that is difficult. I am sure most neons breed in most of the tanks they're kept it- it's the predation on the fry that keeps you from seeing any action. Not to mention the lack of suitable foods.

If I was to try, I would put the tetras in their own tank with a lot of plants. Then when I know they've spawned, I'd remove the adults and see if I can see any fry up to a week afterwards (I dunno if they take longer than a week to hatch out, I doubt it). Then pull the fry out and raise them in a smaller tank, like a 5g or less. This ensures they can find food without you overfeeding the aquarium. Yes, there will be water changes needing to be done everyother day to everyday. That's normal with raising fry. Also, finding food that works will be very hard. I imagine they're TINY and will need microscopic food. When I was breeding dwarf gourami, the attrition rate was astronomical. We resorted to feeding them the life off a squeezed out ofsponge filter and that helped. I'm sure there are better ways/foods but just to give you an idea of the PITA it was....

I'm sure once you raise some fry you can refine the technique I described. But it's not going to be easy to start out. If you've neevr bred any fish, especially small egg-scatterers, this will be a very hard one to cut your teeth on. I've enevr done it or tried because wild/pond raised fish sell for $1/each and I would definitely put way more effort into breeding/raising than they are worth. That actually may be the real reason no one does it. 

GL though!


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

I see the challenges. I have experience with Kribensis and Amano shrimps, but not with egg scatterers. In my case I don't do it for the money,but to see if I can make it.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Well good! Most people want to make something off the effort. Good to hear you're interested in the challenge.  I'll breed ugly fish just to do it. I just have no interest in neons- I've been around the hobby too long and am a little jaded on the popular fish. 8-[
If you've successfully bred and raised amanos, you can definitely do tetras. Amano shrimp are extremely difficult to get out of their pelagic stage. I take it you've gotten them past that? LMK, I've tried to breed them without much success.


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## grak70 (Jan 5, 2010)

The wikipedia article on Neon tetras has a section on suggested methods for breeding them and what to feed the fry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_tetra


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

Six said:


> Well good! Most people want to make something off the effort. Good to hear you're interested in the challenge.  I'll breed ugly fish just to do it. I just have no interest in neons- I've been around the hobby too long and am a little jaded on the popular fish. 8-[
> If you've successfully bred and raised amanos, you can definitely do tetras. Amano shrimp are extremely difficult to get out of their pelagic stage. I take it you've gotten them past that? LMK, I've tried to breed them without much success.


Yes I'm pretty successful with Amano shrimps. My last batch is about 150-200 shrimps and they're already in freshwater and growing fast.


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

grak70 said:


> The wikipedia article on Neon tetras has a section on suggested methods for breeding them and what to feed the fry.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_tetra


Thanks....this should help me.


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

I'm definitely going to try to breed neons....maybe between batches of Amano shrimps  

I also have few Rosy Tetras that I would like to breed. Maybe they're easier egg scatterers to start with?


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Well yeah, the larger the fish the easier the fry, usually. It can vary due to difference in life history strategy. I have rainbowfish breeding that are huge but have tiny fry then I have Peudomugil which are small and they have huge eggs/fry comparatively. I guess you won't know til you try! 

How did you get the amanos past day 14? Could you tell me/send me a link to what you've done? We've got a couple hundred eggs in FW right now and we've been moving the hatchlings out into salt water as we see them. This is my fiance's project, and he can't seem to crack the code to get them past 14 days.


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

Thge webpage I wanted to recommend you to read is not available anymore. In any case, a couple of critical factors you should consider:
1 - I put expecting mom in a 5 gallon tank few days before the eggs hatch
2 - the tank has an air stone and the temperature is kept at 78 degrees, which is the same temperature of the tank where she lives
3 - A temperature higher than78 degrees makes mom dropping a lot of eggs

After the egg hatch you remove mom and add aquarium grade salt to reach saltwater salinity

Feed the larvae with yeast for 1 week, then feed them with golden pearls 50-100 micron.

When you see the first larvae turning into a miniature Amano shrimp, reduce the salinity by 50%. At that point you should see all larvae slowly turning into shrimps. The little shrimps will sart eating crushes flakes.


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## Bettatail (Jan 14, 2009)

TDS under 100, a lot of (use bark)tannins in the water, looks like a tank of tea. ph 6.4 +-, temp 75+-, if it is a group, males become territorial, female ready to spawn would enter any male's territory. spawn in the morning, dim light, just enough to see them, you can artificially extent the dim light hours to encourage them.
take about a month under this condition before they spawn, once started, would keep spawning under the same condition. 
foreground plants cover the entire tank prefer.


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

Bettatail said:


> TDS under 100, a lot of (use bark)tannins in the water, looks like a tank of tea. ph 6.4 +-, temp 75+-, if it is a group, males become territorial, female ready to spawn would enter any male's territory. spawn in the morning, dim light, just enough to see them, you can artificially extent the dim light hours to encourage them.
> take about a month under this condition before they spawn, once started, would keep spawning under the same condition.
> foreground plants cover the entire tank prefer.


What's exactly "TDS under 100"? Also, how do you get a 6.4pH, by using peat moss located in a filter? Thanks.


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## Bettatail (Jan 14, 2009)

1. Low TDS= soft water, tap water TDS in San Francisco is around 80, low. If your tap water is high TDS, use RO filter, I have RO filter, the water come out of it with TDS 10. 
2. any (fresh)wood releasing tannins will lower the tank ph, tannins will encourage neon start spawning also. if ph still not low enough, you can use co2 injection to bring down the ph, to 6.4, but for most tank raised neons, they start spawning at ph 6.7

it is easy to get neon start breeding, if you have a healthy planted tank, since tank raised neons don't require Ph as low as 6.4 as their wild counterparts.
but just warn you ahead to raise the neon fry is anthor story, and it is not easy to keep them alive.


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

maestrale said:


> What's exactly "TDS under 100"? Also, how do you get a 6.4pH, by using peat moss located in a filter? Thanks.


I think "TDS" stands for "Total Dissolved Solids." I don't know what units it's measured in.


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

I should be fine with water softness because tap water is extremely soft where I live. 

However pH is pretty high out of the tap, so I wonder if the fish living at low pH would have a pH shock at every water change?

Also, how do you feed the fry in terms of type of food and feeds per day?


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

maestrale said:


> Yes I'm pretty successful with Amano shrimps. My last batch is about 150-200 shrimps and they're already in freshwater and growing fast.


That is an achievement!

Would you mind sharing how you did it?

Bill


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