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Learning Breeding Cues Tetras


JakeH
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I’m starting to become more interested in fish breeding projects. What cues should I be looking for? I attached an image of one of my Kerri tetras-is this what I’m looking for when it come time to select an egg bound female to pull out? What else should I look for? Pictures are always appreciated; many of us are visual learners.

64E3499B-F202-480D-B89E-EB53EC877D3B.jpeg

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5 minutes ago, JakeH said:

I’m starting to become more interested in fish breeding projects. What cues should I be looking for? I attached an image of one of my Kerri tetras-is this what I’m looking for when it come time to select an egg bound female to pull out? What else should I look for? Pictures are always appreciated; many of us are visual learners.

64E3499B-F202-480D-B89E-EB53EC877D3B.jpeg

I’m not sure if you’re meaning “egg bound” or “egg laden.” When a fish is egg bound, she’s got a blockage ailment. If you’re referring to a female full of eggs, then you can generally pick out the roundest, plumpest females easily enough from a school.

Tetras vary somewhat in terms of what they need to spawn. There certainly are triggers that can promote / induce spawning. Best thing is to carefully follow steps from proven breeders.

But generally speaking, feeding live baby brine shrimp, small live black worms, and live daphnia will get them physically ready with roe and milt.

Water changes can also trigger spawning. In some cases, slightly cooler water temperatures when replacing with soft water has the same effect as rain.

Certain tetras prefer higher tannins for spawning, and lowered pH parameters.

When tetras spawn, they chase and bump into one another. Eggs that fall are usually eaten entirely by the school. If you set up a tank with a dense bed of Java moss for eggs to fall into, you’ll likely preserve some. Some breeders use a marble method, covering an aquarium floor with marbles up to about 3x layers deep. This allows eggs to fall into tiny crevices and hatch uninhibited. I’d suggest laying down a few catappa leaves under marbles to release tannins, and collect first foods for microscopic fry.

Some tetras may need to have the water  level lowered, and photoperiod adjusted.

When searching for breeding tips, I use this rule: read _three separate articles_ on how to breed a particular species; then watch _three YouTube breeders_ explain and show step-by-step process. Note differences in approach / philosophy and try to harmonize with what you’ve got going on at home.

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1 hour ago, Fish Folk said:

I’m not sure if you’re meaning “egg bound” or “egg laden.” When a fish is egg bound, she’s got a blockage ailment. If you’re referring to a female full of eggs, then you can generally pick out the roundest, plumpest females easily enough from a school.

Tetras vary somewhat in terms of what they need to spawn. There certainly are triggers that can promote / induce spawning. Best thing is to carefully follow steps from proven breeders.

But generally speaking, feeding live baby brine shrimp, small live black worms, and live daphnia will get them physically ready with roe and milt.

Water changes can also trigger spawning. In some cases, slightly cooler water temperatures when replacing with soft water has the same effect as rain.

Certain tetras prefer higher tannins for spawning, and lowered pH parameters.

When tetras spawn, they chase and bump into one another. Eggs that fall are usually eaten entirely by the school. If you set up a tank with a dense bed of Java moss for eggs to fall into, you’ll likely preserve some. Some breeders use a marble method, covering an aquarium floor with marbles up to about 3x layers deep. This allows eggs to fall into tiny crevices and hatch uninhibited. I’d suggest laying down a few catappa leaves under marbles to release tannins, and collect first foods for microscopic fry.

Some tetras may need to have the water  level lowered, and photoperiod adjusted.

When searching for breeding tips, I use this rule: read _three separate articles_ on how to breed a particular species; then watch _three YouTube breeders_ explain and show step-by-step process. Note differences in approach / philosophy and try to harmonize with what you’ve got going on at home.

Thanks for the response. That’s exactly what I was looking for. I starting from zero. I’ve had surprises pop out of my dense planting, but only one ever grew out. Are there any experts you’d recommend? I love your approach to research-sometimes we need rules to keep it unbiased or to force retention.  Make me think of the buy a hardscape item every LFS visit...might not need every rock but you build a pretty awesome collection and your happy you stuck with it when your setting up a new tank. Knowledge works the same way.

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3 minutes ago, JakeH said:

Thanks for the response. That’s exactly what I was looking for. I starting from zero. I’ve had surprises pop out of my dense planting, but only one ever grew out. Are there any experts you’d recommend? I love your approach to research-sometimes we need rules to keep it unbiased or to force retention.  Make me think of the buy a hardscape item every LFS visit...might not need every rock but you build a pretty awesome collection and your happy you stuck with it when your setting up a new tank. Knowledge works the same way.

Some breeders I always look to include...

Dean Tweedle (Seattle)

Greg Sage (Colorado / San Francisco)

Lucas Bretz (Indiana... I think?)

Mark’s Aquatics (UK)

Mark’s Aquatics has a whole series on breeding various species. Long, detailed videos. I’ve watched his Cardinal Tetra Breeding series a number of times.

Lucas Bretz tends to answer breeding questions in his live streams, but if I recall, he has a good series on breeding tetras using a method by Ted Judy. You rip off the bottom glass of a small aquarium, replace it with a screen, and then set it inside a larger tank resting on raised blocks. Tetras spawn inside the smaller tank, eggs fall down through the screen holes, and once finished, the tetras and screen-bottomed breeder-tank are removed to allow them to hatch.

For an interesting journey following a different path, check out Tannin Aquatics. Scott Fellman has a unique approach to breeding Amazon fish - especially tetras. His philosophy is that the breakdown of indigenous organics is vital to success with tetras. Check out his website, and message him with questions.

Greg Sage, from Select Aquatics, is an awesome breeder of rare fish. He’s got very helpful videos, and his replies to email inquiries are legendary!

(Master Breeder) Dean Tweedle is just a perfect blend of experience, genius, and warmth. If he’s got any tips... they’ll be brilliant. Cory has had him on streams talking by about breeding fish. It’s seriously worth it to watch all of his videos, interviews, etc.

If you need direct links, let me know  

 

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On 5/26/2021 at 1:17 PM, Fish Folk said:

Some breeders I always look to include...

Dean Tweedle (Seattle)

Greg Sage (Colorado / San Francisco)

Lucas Bretz (Indiana... I think?)

Mark’s Aquatics (UK)

Mark’s Aquatics has a whole series on breeding various species. Long, detailed videos. I’ve watched his Cardinal Tetra Breeding series a number of times.

Lucas Bretz tends to answer breeding questions in his live streams, but if I recall, he has a good series on breeding tetras using a method by Ted Judy. You rip off the bottom glass of a small aquarium, replace it with a screen, and then set it inside a larger tank resting on raised blocks. Tetras spawn inside the smaller tank, eggs fall down through the screen holes, and once finished, the tetras and screen-bottomed breeder-tank are removed to allow them to hatch.

For an interesting journey following a different path, check out Tannin Aquatics. Scott Fellman has a unique approach to breeding Amazon fish - especially tetras. His philosophy is that the breakdown of indigenous organics is vital to success with tetras. Check out his website, and message him with questions.

Greg Sage, from Select Aquatics, is an awesome breeder of rare fish. He’s got very helpful videos, and his replies to email inquiries are legendary!

(Master Breeder) Dean Tweedle is just a perfect blend of experience, genius, and warmth. If he’s got any tips... they’ll be brilliant. Cory has had him on streams talking by about breeding fish. It’s seriously worth it to watch all of his videos, interviews, etc.

If you need direct links, let me know  

 

I just watched the Mark’s Aquatics cardinal tetra video with the 2.5g tank filded with compost and subwassertang. Perfect tutorial. I appreciated the brief bit on selecting what to pull and his commitment to capturing the spawning behavior.

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13 minutes ago, JakeH said:

I just watched the Mark’s Aquatics cardinal tetra video with the 2.5g tank filded with compost and subwassertang. Perfect tutorial. I appreciated the brief bit on selecting what to pull and his commitment to capturing the spawning behavior.

It is a great tutorial! I think he makes it look a lot easier than it really is. I've tried that method, and found problems. But see if you can get that to work. I think LR Bretz is actually on to a better strategy here....

 

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You can sew it together with fishing line and it makes tight edges.  I use it for guppy berthing but I use a 7 square per inch (what he uses is 10 squares per inch and that is good  for eggs).  So much easier and cheaper and no chasing with a net.

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