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Is this what I think it is?


Rita
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So there was a lot going on in my tank today.... I had to fish out some sick panda corydoras, I tried to add a wave maker that I believe is unfortunately too strong for my 20 gal long... and through out all this madness I saw what I believe to be a baby ember tetra?!? I have 7 of them and the only other fish were the panda corys... and I know they weren’t breeding. How is this possible? Could there be more? I had a hard enough time netting the corys there’s no way I could ever catch this tiny thing lol (sorry the pic isn’t very good I had to snap it in a hurry.

69E0EBD8-DD39-479D-8979-463AB73FBC4F.jpeg

Edited by Rita
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Given any reasonable conditions, fish will spawn. And spawn a lot. Egg scatterers like tetras will typically have the eggs and fry eaten, but from time to time one survives and surprises you. The tetras have likely laid hundreds/thousands of eggs depending on how long you've kept them, but the odds of survival are pretty slim, but every now and then one survives.

If you ever try to breed them for real, there are a wide variety of options. In the old days marbles were recommended as a substrate for egg scatterers as the eggs could roll down between the marbles and escape predation. Then you'd remove the parents and raise the fry. Breeding mops are often used these days. Some people put screens below the adult fish in the hope that the eggs fall through the screening and the parent fish can't get through the screening to eat the eggs. Very often the spawning fish or their tankmates will eat the eggs as they fall. Even in a perfect setup designed to optimize the safety of the eggs, probably ten percent or more would still get chomped.

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7 hours ago, OceanTruth said:

Surprise babies are awesome! I always feel like "accidental" spawns mean that you're doing a good job with the fish's environment.

It’s ironic to me that I’m pretty sure my environment was not suitable for panda corydoras, yet the ember tetras are spawning lol.

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