JaredL Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 Having trouble getting my black skirt tetra to produce eggs. I have separated one female from the community tank to make sure she's getting plenty to eat. -Feeding live bbs, frozen blood worms, and frozen brine shrimp. It has been 2 weeks of heavy feeding with no visible results. -Tank parameters: Temp 72 (according to accurate thermometer, heater reading not accurate), TDS 190, ph 6.8, see attached pic of test strip for other info. Tank is a 3 week old setup using sponge filter and plants from a 3 year seasoned tank. I'm almost certain this is a female as I have 5 others and believe I can see clear differences between the sexes. It's an older female (probably 3 years) that came with a group of fish I adopted 4 months ago from a "less attentive" fish keeper. Pics are right after feeding, so she's normally not as round as shown. Hoping someone on here can give some ideas to trigger egg production as I feel I've hit a dead end. Let me know if there's other info I can provide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theplatymaster Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 @JaredL that fish definitely appears to have eggs. have you tried doing a colder water change? also maybe drop the ph some more slowly with a few Indian Almond Leaves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredL Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 @Theplatymaster Thanks for the reply! I shouldn't have taken the picture right after feeding as she usually isn't round like that. I planned to do the cooler water change, but I thought that was just to trigger the spawning after the female was already holding eggs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theplatymaster Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 On 3/20/2023 at 8:44 PM, JaredL said: Thanks for the reply! I shouldn't have taken the picture right after feeding as she usually isn't round like that. can you please post another picture of the fish at a different time then for better egg evaluation? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredL Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 @Theplatymaster As requested, pre-feeding pictures. Also you mentioned almond leaves before. I do have 1 in the tank, but didn't want to over do it since it's only a 10gal tank. With such low kh in the water, would another leaf potentially crash my ph? Also the fish is approx 3 years old. Could she just be too old? Thanks again for your advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 (edited) Is there a male with her? Edit to elaborate... if there's not a male with her, I'd drop one in right after lights out tonight and see what happens over the next couple days. I do not have experience breeding tetras or much of anything, really. But I know that separation and reuniting is a common way of triggering a spawn for egg layers and have used it successfully to get my CPD female to drop eggs. Edited March 21 by jwcarlson 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theplatymaster Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 (edited) On 3/21/2023 at 2:17 PM, jwcarlson said: Is there a male with her? Edit to elaborate... if there's not a male with her, I'd drop one in right after lights out tonight and see what happens over the next couple days. I do not have experience breeding tetras or much of anything, really. But I know that separation and reuniting is a common way of triggering a spawn for egg layers and have used it successfully to get my CPD female to drop eggs. i agree with this. although these tetras practice external fertilization, with these species the male induces breeding, so the female will not release eggs without one On 3/21/2023 at 1:33 PM, JaredL said: @Theplatymaster As requested, pre-feeding pictures. Also you mentioned almond leaves before. I do have 1 in the tank, but didn't want to over do it since it's only a 10gal tank. With such low kh in the water, would another leaf potentially crash my ph? Also the fish is approx 3 years old. Could she just be too old? Thanks again for your advice. still looks like eggs. @JaredL Edited March 21 by Theplatymaster 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredL Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 @Theplatymaster @jwcarlson Good news! I think. Placed a male in the tank last evening, about an hour before lights out, and topped off with slightly cooler RO water(tank was already low ~2gal). This morning I saw some interaction between them. Couldn't be sure if it was spawning or their typical scrapping, but was pretty sure I saw some really small particles falling. Can only see what I believe are eggs on the mop as the bottom is white pool sand. In picture, yellow arrows I think are eggs, red arrow is a piece of sand. If these are eggs, 24 to 48hrs before they hatch? Parents have been removed from the tank as well. Thanks for the help! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 I have no clue what their eggs would look like. But that looks like eggs to me. Would have to look up how long to hatch but 2 or 3 days seems pretty typical. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquariumCentral Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 what happened Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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