Is It Hard To Breed Neon Tetras?

[guppykid2006]

is it hard to breed neon tetras?

i have 5 and im guessing there is a good chance i have males and feamales. will they mate or not.

 

[MHunt]

I've heard that they will breed readily given the right conditions. But i have never had any spawning activity in my tank yet.

 

[guppykid2006]

do you know "the right conditions"?

 

[MHunt]

I'd be guessing if i said yes, but my guess would be soft acidic water with good stats. No ammonia, nitrite and little nitrate. Feed the fish well on bloodworm, daphnia, frozen or live if possible. Have some java moss or similar in the tank for the fish to spawn over.



These are perhaps the most readily bred fish in the hobby after livebearers, hence why they are so cheap so it can't be that hard.

 

[guppykid2006]

ok thnx i have put a male and a female in a breeders net with a plant.

Will the eggs go throught the net? (if they even breed )

 

[dwarfgourami]

These are perhaps the most readily bred fish in the hobby after livebearers, hence why they are so cheap so it can't be that hard.

By professional breeders, not by hobbyists.

Apart from the soft acid water, you will need a separate breeding tank, fairly young fish and lots of livefood for conditioning. Once the parents have spawned, they need to be removed and the tank then covered with dark paper or similar as the eggs are light sensitive. According to Bailey & Sandfrod (The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Aquarium Fish), they hatch after 24 ours, and become free-swimming on the fourth day, after which you need to feed them first on infusoria or liquifry, then on newly hatched brine shrimp.

They will not spawn in a breeders net; nets are for livebearers which have already mated, and where the female is "pregnant"- this doesn't happen with egglayers.

 

[OohFeeshy]

You'd have more success with something like a jumbo breeder net- stick some mesh/netting too fine for the neons but big enough for eggs to go through a few inches from the bottom, stick in some floating plants and when you see eggs, either remove the tetras or the eggs. You'd be better off getting more tetras too- while you most likely do have both sexes, not all will want to breed at the same time.

 

[three-fingers]

My balck neon tetras spawn all the time in my tank. It has a ph of 6.5 and soft water ammonia 0 ppm, nitrites 0 ppm and nitrates 5-10 ppm. I feed them live or frozen bloodworms/daphnia about once a week.
They always eat the eggs though, with the help of the other fish.

I would think regular neon tetras would be pretty much the same to breed, good luck. You could try feeding them some live food and some specially formulated flake food for spawning.

The females are the fat ones btw.

 

[guppykid2006]

ok thnx

i also have glowlight tetras. are they hard as well to breed? can they make hybrids with neons?

 

[three-fingers]

i also have glowlight tetras. are they hard as well to breed? can they make hybrids with neons?

They are pretty much the same to breed, soft acidic water and live food should do it .

You cannot cross them, as a rule you cannot different species. Sometimes you can if they are very similar species of the same genus, but the offspring are infertile and usually deformed.

 

[dwarfgourami]

i also have glowlight tetras. are they hard as well to breed? can they make hybrids with neons?

They are pretty much the same to breed, soft acidic water and live food should do it .

You cannot cross them, as a rule you cannot different species. Sometimes you can if they are very similar species of the same genus, but the offspring are infertile and usually deformed.

note that this does not apply to all hybrids: endler/guppy crosses are not sterile, nor are platy/swordtail crosses; in fact, both these are extremely common in the shops, to the extent where it can be hard to find pure-breds. But I think you are right about these tetras.