I was in my poorly stocked but very pleasant local aquarium store yesterday, and they had black neon tetras for the usual low price. They only carry the most popular bread and butter fish. I've really liked black neons (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi) since I first saw them in my teens, and it's a fish I have almost always had in my tetra community tanks. I always have one of those tanks.
I bought a new group of these fish a few months ago - six of them. And what gives me great pleasure is that I can now look into a tank in my fishroom, and watch 15-20 very young baby black neons as they are just starting to develop their colours and body shape. I like watching fry develop into fish, and then being able to move those fish into the community with the knowledge they started out in my aquariums. A fish doesn't have to be exotic, rare and expensive to be fun to breed. Shoaling fish like to live in larger groups, and you can start with a group of six and make a decent shoal out of it.
Right now, I have four homebred and raised bread and butter, basic tetras shoaling in my 120 gallon - cardinal tetras, Pristellas, glowlights and black neons. All should be easy to buy, if I want to just be a consumer. But there's a satisfaction in producing your own show - healthy fish that get to have a long run in a well set up tank.
I'm fortunate in having clean, soft water from my tap. Tetras will breed in it without my needing RO. I like to study each species to learn how to breed them, and I get a certain satisfaction from meaningless success. I used to really admire the doggedness of old time aquarists who had to pay a fortune to get these fish, before these tetras became cheap and expendable. They learned how to breed them and shared them within aquarium clubs or via the local stores. They used to get a little big feeling around the young 1980s aquarists breeding Cichlids and livebearers (an unfair attitude), because they had bred the difficult fish. They saw us as playing in the little leagues.
I always figured I'd try their challenges on, and I've learned they weren't all as soaked in wisdom as they pretended. There are very difficult livebearers, Cichlids and tetras, but there are easy ones too. As with everything, you build your skills by learning and doing. So I raise my morning coffee cup to the fishkeepers who could go out and buy more fish to make up a good sized shoal, but who decide to try breeding up a group instead. It's no use trying to impress other diehard aquarists by pretending you have some great knowledge and skill you don't - all you need is solid information from a couple of good sites, maybe some good garage sale books, and a bit of patience.
I bought a new group of these fish a few months ago - six of them. And what gives me great pleasure is that I can now look into a tank in my fishroom, and watch 15-20 very young baby black neons as they are just starting to develop their colours and body shape. I like watching fry develop into fish, and then being able to move those fish into the community with the knowledge they started out in my aquariums. A fish doesn't have to be exotic, rare and expensive to be fun to breed. Shoaling fish like to live in larger groups, and you can start with a group of six and make a decent shoal out of it.
Right now, I have four homebred and raised bread and butter, basic tetras shoaling in my 120 gallon - cardinal tetras, Pristellas, glowlights and black neons. All should be easy to buy, if I want to just be a consumer. But there's a satisfaction in producing your own show - healthy fish that get to have a long run in a well set up tank.
I'm fortunate in having clean, soft water from my tap. Tetras will breed in it without my needing RO. I like to study each species to learn how to breed them, and I get a certain satisfaction from meaningless success. I used to really admire the doggedness of old time aquarists who had to pay a fortune to get these fish, before these tetras became cheap and expendable. They learned how to breed them and shared them within aquarium clubs or via the local stores. They used to get a little big feeling around the young 1980s aquarists breeding Cichlids and livebearers (an unfair attitude), because they had bred the difficult fish. They saw us as playing in the little leagues.
I always figured I'd try their challenges on, and I've learned they weren't all as soaked in wisdom as they pretended. There are very difficult livebearers, Cichlids and tetras, but there are easy ones too. As with everything, you build your skills by learning and doing. So I raise my morning coffee cup to the fishkeepers who could go out and buy more fish to make up a good sized shoal, but who decide to try breeding up a group instead. It's no use trying to impress other diehard aquarists by pretending you have some great knowledge and skill you don't - all you need is solid information from a couple of good sites, maybe some good garage sale books, and a bit of patience.
