Wish me luck - attempting to breed rummy nose tetras

[Emika_B]

A few weeks ago I found mystery fry in my quarantine tank.  They’re either rummy nose tetras or dwarf neon rainbows.  Now the fry are in a breeder box in the main tank and seem to be doing well.  You guessed it - now I want to see if I can encourage breeding.

I placed 1 slim (male I’m pretty sure) and 3 large bellied (supposed to be an indicator of fertile female) rummies in the fishless quarantine tank.  I’ll be feeding them protein rich foods such as frozen baby and regular brine shrimp, freeze dried tubifex worms and some all around nutrition with the Co-op’s fry food.  There are quite a few stems of pogostemon octopus floating and a large ‘fluffy’ plastic plant, along with a couple of moss balls.  I’m using a sponge filter for filtration and no heater - the water’s been 82 - 84 lately.

I have several more rummies in my main tank and they chase each other around regularly.  From what I’ve seen it’s more breeding-style than just simple schooling.  However, it’s a community tank and my guys are all little piggies so I don’t hold out much hope for any ‘wild born’ fry.  I’m hoping it’ll be successful in a more controlled environment.

Suggestions are more than welcome.  Wish me luck!

[Fish Folk]

9 hours ago, Emika_B said:

A few weeks ago I found mystery fry in my quarantine tank.  They’re either rummy nose tetras or dwarf neon rainbows.  Now the fry are in a breeder box in the main tank and seem to be doing well.  You guessed it - now I want to see if I can encourage breeding.

I placed 1 slim (male I’m pretty sure) and 3 large bellied (supposed to be an indicator of fertile female) rummies in the fishless quarantine tank.  I’ll be feeding them protein rich foods such as frozen baby and regular brine shrimp, freeze dried tubifex worms and some all around nutrition with the Co-op’s fry food.  There are quite a few stems of pogostemon octopus floating and a large ‘fluffy’ plastic plant, along with a couple of moss balls.  I’m using a sponge filter for filtration and no heater - the water’s been 82 - 84 lately.

I have several more rummies in my main tank and they chase each other around regularly.  From what I’ve seen it’s more breeding-style than just simple schooling.  However, it’s a community tank and my guys are all little piggies so I don’t hold out much hope for any ‘wild born’ fry.  I’m hoping it’ll be successful in a more controlled environment.

Suggestions are more than welcome.  Wish me luck!

Awesome!! All the best luck to you. If you can successfully breed Runny-nose, you d add hound feel really good about yourself.

Some things to consider:

(1) tetras are notorious for eating their eggs as much as for eating their fry. The challenge is actually figuring out how to get the eggs  to a protected place in the breeding setup without them being eaten. Two common approaches are... -a- cover the bottom 3-inches of the entire tank with some cover that eggs can fall into (e.g. Java moss, or marbles)... -b- use a porous netting underneath the breeding group that eggs can fall through, but adults cannot pass through (e.g. suspend breeders in a dative mesh cube inside a tank, or somehow construct a r  as raised barrier / divider a few inches up from the bottom)

(2) Many tetra eggs are light-sensitive, so keep lights low for breeding tank, and totally dark while eggs hatch. Remember that tetras either spawn at first light, or last light.

(3) Along with feeding live food, sometimes doing a 25% water change with rainwater will trigger tetras to breed.

(4) You must have a source of live micro food ready for fry. Infusoria are a must. In an established tank, there’s a lot of micro life already present (this is how little ones show up now and then). But when using a dedicated breeding setup, a feeding plan is essential. Here is a classic thread from the forum about culturing infusoria, making green water, etc.

Again, all the very best luck to you!

[Emika_B]

Fish Folk - thanks for the kind and helpful words!  I’ll have to look into getting some marbles.  I’m trying to grow infusoria but I’m not sure how productive it is.  

Honestly, if nothing comes of this I won’t be too bummed.  I hadn’t planned on any successful wild breeding.  Now, when I add platties and/or guppies, well that’s an entirely different story 🙂

[Nicohorse318]

@Emika_B found your thread about breeding Rummy Nose Tetra today, while doing some research on the species - I will most likely be adopting some Rummy Nose this week from an acquaintance who is moving states and needs a new home for some of her fish. Not sure what ratio of males/females this adoptive group yet...

Were you successful in your breeding attempts? Interested to find out!

thanks!

[Emika_B]

Nicohorse318 - no, unfortunately I was not successful.  I may give it another go at some point, though.  I just love those little guys!

[Nicohorse318]

Bummer @Emika_B, sorry to hear that. I have read that Rummynose are tricky to breed. They are SO cool looking though!

What did the "mystery fry" in your original post turn out to be - rummynose or dwarf neon rainbow?

[Emika_B]

Nicohorse318 - They turned out to be dwarf neon rainbows.  Funny thing - it’s happened twice with the dwarf neon rainbows!  The second time I had done a rescape of the tank so tossed a mess of valisneria into the hospital tank while I worked.  I ended up leaving quite a bit in there.  Eventually it started to die off since it wasn’t planted.  What do I find but baby fish!  The eggs must have been on the plants and hatched out.  I put them in the baby apartment in the big tank to let them grow out.

I’m thinking of doing another rescape soon and wonder how many more dwarf neon rainbows I’ll end up with :)

[jwcarlson]

I noticed some of my rummynose looked a bit more... full... than the others the other day.  Wonder if they're going to spawn.  That would be pretty cool, but would guess in the community tank they're in there wouldn't be much success for fry.  I didn't think they'd breed in a tank, but now I want to watch closer.  I really like the rummynose.  If I didn't already have the cardinal tetras in there, I would probably replace them with more rummies.  

Pretty cool you got some baby rainbows even if it wasn't your rummies 🙂

[Emika_B]

Jwcarlson - I’m down to 4 rummies, what I believe to be 2 girls and 2 boys.  One of the ones I believe is a girl is very, very round.  Think about to give birth guppy round.  The other one I believe is a girl isn’t as round but definitely not as sleek as the two I believe are boys.  I tried putting the very round one and one of the sleek ones in a breeder box in the hopes of getting eggs, but it wasn’t in the cards.  I may try again but use the hospital tank, with catapa leaves for tannins and add some distilled water to simulate rainwater.  And feed lots of protein, like brine shrimp.  I’ve got some egg crate panel that I used to make the big tank’s lid; hopefully that’ll be enough of a deterrent to hide the eggs.