Surprised by Rummy Nose tetra dance at 1st light this morning…

[Magnum Man]

At 1st light this morning, I noticed much more activity in my South American tank than normal… apparently they are group spawners, like a female is ready, and all the males in the school chase her around… so far, I’ve only witnessed couples dancing… this group dancing, was kind of surprising, but I suppose could be expected, on fish that shoal in a dozen…
I know nothing, about how they breed… assuming they are egg scatterers… no chance of any survival, in a community tank… but interesting to watch…
I’ve never even been able to keep tetras, with my previous water… interesting what you can see, when you can provide a fish what it actually needs…
I can’t tell them apart, but looks like a group of 5 or 6 races around, assuming they are lead by the female, intermittently she stops, and 4 or 5 others all rub against her shimmying for a few seconds, then off she goes, with them all racing behind her, until she stops again…
It’s nice having the tanks in my bedroom, so I can witness things like this…
Hmmm… she may be depositing on leaves of the plants. As she seems to rub up on them occasionally… or maybe she is applying pressure to release eggs??? They are so small of a fish, the eggs must be really tiny…

 

[GaryE]

It's spawning, and it's beautiful to see that The eggs probably can't develop unless you have very soft water, but it's a great sign they're healthy and happy.

 

[Magnum Man]

I’ve heard some or most Cory’s are group spawners… this has been going on for at least a half hour… the Angels have relinquished center stage to the Rummy’s
I can’t tell if it’s more than one female or not really, but looks like the whole group takes part in the ordeal… there is so much action, with all 12 of them taking part, and no real visible difference between the males and females…
I don’t regularly check my water anymore, since I switched to the RO water… last test of the RO, the water was 7.0 as it should be… there are multiple pieces of driftwood in the tank, and I keep a couple almond leaves in the tank… I don’t think the driftwood releases much tannins, after being exposed to my old alkaline water for so long, so I expect my Ph is in the upper 6’s

 

[Magnum Man]

Looks pretty much done now, about a hour after I 1st noticed it

 

[Colin_T]

At 1st light this morning, I noticed much more activity in my South American tank than normal… apparently they are group spawners, like a female is ready, and all the males in the school chase her around… so far, I’ve only witnessed couples dancing… this group dancing, was kind of surprising, but I suppose could be expected, on fish that shoal in a dozen…

Humans do that too. See a nice girl at the bar in a short skirt with a big rack and all the guys chase her.
Sorry ladies

I know nothing, about how they breed… assuming they are egg scatterers… no chance of any survival, in a community tank… but interesting to watch…
I’ve never even been able to keep tetras, with my previous water… interesting what you can see, when you can provide a fish what it actually needs…
I can’t tell them apart, but looks like a group of 5 or 6 races around, assuming they are lead by the female, intermittently she stops, and 4 or 5 others all rub against her shimmying for a few seconds, then off she goes, with them all racing behind her, until she stops again…

They are egg scatterers and when they stop in the plants for a few seconds and the males are by her side doing the hippy hippy shake, that is them breeding and expelling gametes (eggs & sperm). This will continue until the female/s have expelled all their eggs.

The eggs are photosensitive and don't develop in bright light. Normal breeding tanks are dark, have a dark substrate, tea stained water from tannins, a PH around 6.0 and a GH close to 0ppm. After the fish have bred the adults are removed and the tank is blacked out until the fry hatch. Blacking out the tank simply means covering the sides with dark paper to stop light getting to the eggs.

When a fish or group of fish start to breed, they release hormones that can trigger other fishes to breed. You might find tomorrow some of the other fishes in the tank displaying.

 

[Magnum Man]

No new displaying this morning, but most everyone in the tank are juveniles… I do have 3 electric blue rams in the tank, a 2of them seem more chummy, and the same with 2 of the 4 Apisto’s, but no displaying going on with the dwarf cichlids

 

[Magnum Man]

All the tanks got some Bacter AE, and some freeze dried brine shrimp this morning, so that may have quelled the romance this morning