You can introduce them to dry pelleted food after a few weeks, and they should color up in a month on a proper diet. The Black Neon Tetra has a yellow-green stripe that runs the length of the body with a black region under the yellow-green stripe. I don’t think it possible that the ‘older’ babies were already breeding as this had been a continuous process, a few tiny babies appearing each day or so. Home Freshwater Tank. A single neon tetra will require two gallons, but they are schooling fish, and you should keep a small shoal in a minimum of 10 gallons. Fancy breeding Neon tetras? Driftwood is popularly used to add shade in a neon tetra tank, and you can also use rocks and caves. You should set up a separate breeding tank to increase the survival chances of the fry. I have noticed similar situations with Apistogramma and Ctenopoma, and can’t think of any other explanation. In the wild, neon tetras gravitate towards areas with dense vegetation. Feed them small pieces of live meals as they can have difficulty swallowing larger ones. Some fish are really easy to breed,…, The first thing you will notice about guppies and Neon Tetras is their vibrancy. The water, tannin stained, became darker and darker and I removed the adults at 14 days and waited. Up to eight weeks after I first spotted fry in the breeding tank, tiny colourless babies still continued to appear. Unlike the neon tetra, black neon tetras are relatively easy to breed, even for the novice aquarist. They must be at least twelve weeks old to be viable for breeding. The water temperature fluctuates between 20-26 °C as the rivers transverse through tropical areas. Organic peat moss can also be used. Tannins will stain the water and add shade to the breeding tank. It is tricky to breed neon tetras because they demand specific water conditions to mate. … Temperature Range: 72 … You can use a 12 x 8 x 8 inch (30 x 20 x 20cm) tank to breed your tetras. Wild neon tetras sustain themselves on an omnivorous diet. The eggs and fry are susceptible to light, but I believe that the brown water and leaf litter also hid the eggs from the hungry adults which I had fed only sparingly in the breeding tank. Neon tetras are old enough to breed at 12 weeks. Your email address will not be published. With later efforts I left the parents together for five to seven days and a few fry were once produced, but they were nothing to write home about. Do not keep neon tetras with cichlids, bettas, angelfish, or goldfish as they will be eaten or bullied. Plants will not only mimic the natural habitat of the fish, but they will absorb toxic elements and maintain water quality. If the tetras are ready, the females will drop eggs to be fertilized by the male. They seem to thrive in darker conditions, which you can achieve with low-spectrum lights and floating plants. I really enjoy the aquarium hobby and love sharing my experience with others. Floating plants will also dim the lights and create a calm environment for your fish. This happened the day I fed the grindal worms. The easiest way to sex them is to observe their bellies – the female’s is rounder and will have a … The green color of live plants also contrasts well with the bright hues of the neon tetra. Temperature: 22-26°C. One longtime aquarist provides his tried-and-true method of breeding tetras, suggesting five species to start with. Your email address will not be published. GB 638 3492 15, Copyright © 2021 Warners Group Publications Plc. I darkened the tank, added a well conditioned pair and settled back to observe. Neon Tetras are difficult to breed as they require specific water parameters to ‘trigger’ the mating season. The tetras demand pristine conditions without ammonia or nitrites. They will thrive in a planted setup with floating varieties like water lettuce and red river floaters to diffuse the light. If keeping them with gouramis, avoid the pearl, opaline, or giant. AquariumNexus.com does not intend to provide any kind of veterinary suggestion. For the mating, you can put Neon Tetras in a separate tank as they need different temperatures and water conditions as the main tank. There are few prettier sights in the aquarium world than a large school of neon tetras in a well-planted tank. Also, this tank acts as a place for the incubation of eggs, and the baby tetras. Neon Tetra Breeding. However, I recently found myself with another 24” tank and a dozen Neons. Breeding neon tetras can be difficult, and requires very soft water. Genetically speaking, you are not likely to get reproductively viable fish at the hobbyist level. With that in mind, this issue is very ‘reader heavy’ with not just two in-depth book reviews, but also a feature on the top 20 best ever fish books as advised by a lifelong collector. Neon tetras are adapted to low to medium lighting. Neon tetras need dim lighting, a DH less than one, about 5.5 pH, and a temperature of 75°F to breed. The eggs are quite tiny, and you want to keep the tank without lights so that it is hard for the parents to see them. Keep at least five of them or more in the same tank. With their striking blue and red colors, they can really make a tank pop. Within a couple of weeks they were spawning every day. The tiny transparent eggs may stick to plants, rocks, any other surface they get close to. You can feed them daphnia, blood worms or other food that are high in protein. Neon tetras are small and colorful, and they make excellent pets for beginner aquarists. The male might take the occasional break, not moving much but still keeping a close eye on the female they are trying to woo. This page may contain affiliate links, which will earn us a commission. Glass Catfish. Hey, I'm Fabian, chief editor at Aquarium Nexus. Care Level: Beginner. If you intend to breed neon tetras, you will have to get a separate breeding tank since they eat their young. The parents will readily feed on the eggs and fry, which makes breeding even harder. Those Cardinals have much to answer for…. The blue stripe on the females will also appear curved if you look keenly. You need high-quality pellets to form the basis of their diet since flakes may be unsuitable for their small mouths. It is fair to say that Neon Tetras are some of the most heavily captive-bred fish in the hobby aquarium trade. Neon tetras swim in the middle of your tank, and the substrate choice will be based on preference. Neon Tetras have a unique breeding process. « Amano Shrimp – Habitat, Care, Feeding, Tank Size, Breeding, Ramshorn Snail – Habitat, Care, Feeding, Tank Size, Breeding ». They will generally not hurt any tank mates as they are shy and timid. Encouraged by my success I decided to use a similar but larger set-up to try and spawn Congo tetras, but within 24 hours of placing them into the acidic conditions the adults had died. You can use leaf litter from oak as they will readily leak the tannins. Tannins- Neon tetras need to feel comfortable for them to breed.