My cousin, who couldn’t stop himself from bragging about how beautiful Neon Tetras are, asked me if I had any idea on how to breed Neon Tetras.
After small research I knew, we can breed Neon Tetras right there in our tank, but it’s not an easy task. We must have a special breeding tank, suitable water condition inside the tank, and control over the day and night cycle.
Equally important, we need to have a major concern on eggs, as adult Neon Tetras can easily eat them. Also, taking care of the baby Neon Tetras is a very careful job to do.
Read Full Article on Neon Tetra: A Complete Care Guide For Beginners
Step-By-Step Guide To Breed Neon Tetras
As I mentioned earlier, before you begin the breeding of Neon Tetras, you must understand that they have fixed needs for the water temperature, tank condition, and many more. And, you must have a complete understanding of when and how you are going to introduce adult Neon Tetras.
However, if the conditions are suitable, you can breed your Neon Tetras successfully. You just need to know the right ways for breeding.
Below here, are some guides for you to breed your fish just correctly.
Step 1: Create a Right Environment
Condition a Tank Water
First, you need to have two tanks. Neon Tetras breed perfectly in soft, acidic water. You can use reverse- osmosis water, but easy to use rainwater. You can keep peat moss inside the tank for a few weeks, and use filtration before introducing Neon Tetras.
Set Up Your Breeding Tank
A breeding tank can be the size of 12*8*8 inches. In this particular tank, you will bring your male and female tetras to breed. Also, this tank acts as a place for the incubation of eggs, and the baby tetras.
The water in the breeding tank must be warmer, so place a heater and maintain the temperature of about 70- 72F. For, Neon Tetras to live in the environment, as mentioned prior, the water must be soft and acidic (PH of 5- 6).
However, sometimes, your tank doesn’t meet any of these requirements mentioned above. In such a case, do not scare yourself.
Instead, you can get a tank thermometer to manage the temperature. You can easily get PH test strips in pet stores, for testing the PH of the water. It is better if you put some spawning mops on the bottom of the breeding tank to offer protection from predatory parents.
Related Article: Tetra Fry Tank Set-Up: Fish Tank Requirement For The Fry
Use a Bubble- Up or a Corner- Box Filter for Filtration
The main reason behind using correct filtration in your tank is because it helps to remove wastes and harmful bacteria from the tank. This ultimately keeps your Neon Tetras sound and healthy. You can use either bubble- up or a corner- box filter, as both of these filters are gentle.
Begin The Infusoria Culture to Feed Newly Hatched Neon Tetras
For the first few days, newly hatched Neon Tetras fry will only be able to eat microscopic foods. And, infusoria are ideal for newly hatched fry, and you can easily culture infusoria at your home.
Properly Condition Your Fish
It is very important to condition your fish before breeding them. You must make them fat and healthy. So, feed them with some meat items and live foods. You can give them white or Grindal worms, or hatched Brine Shrimp. Give them these foods, as much as they can consume.
Keep Your Tank In a Low-Light Place
When you keep your aquarium in a sunny place or a place with bright light, Neon Tetras cannot thrive. That doesn’t mean you have to keep them in a completely dry place. Just, make sure you keep them in a place with minimum light.
But, if you cannot find low- light place in your home, you can cover the back and sides with dark paper.
Step 2: Introduce Male and Female Tetras for Breeding
If You Want, You Can Sex Your Tetras
It is not so necessary to breed your Neon Tetras. You can select few Tetras and keep them in a breeding tank, and breeding will happen anyway. But, if you want to sex them, then separately put male and female Neon Tetras in the tank.
How Can You Distinguish Between Male and Female Neon Tetra?
You may not see any sexual difference in the male and female Neon Tetras, but still, you can recognize which one is male and which one is female.
On one hand, male Neon Tetras are slim and have a straight blue stripe. On the other hand, female Neon Tetras are wider, fatter, and have bent blue stripe. Females are rounder and bigger than males.
Make Sure You Keep Adult Tetras Inside The Tank
When you are introducing Tetras into the tank, keep in mind that Tetras should be an adult. They must be about 12 weeks old. And, evening time is the absolute time to place your adult Tetras into the tank. Let them stay in the tank for 1 or 2 days.
Watch Tetras Spawning
After 1 or 2 days, they will start to spawn. The male Tetra will swim around the female Tetra in a square pattern, motionlessly with little jerky movements. You can notice females with a large belly full of eggs.
If You Didn’t Notice Neon Tetras Breeding, Adjust The Condition Inside The Tank
Due to various reasons, breeding doesn’t happen sometimes. At that time, all you have to do is, adjust the temperature inside the tank, test the PH level, make the water soft, and adjust the lightning.
Moreover, when you change the water softness, it affects their spawning behavior. So, add more soft water if your fish are not spawning.
Do you have patience?
Because it takes time and a lot of experiments to get proper conditions for breeding.
Observe The Eggs
When you notice a reduction in the belly of female Tetras, the spawning completes. The eggs will be small. If you observe closely, you will see eggs lying on the bottom and along with the mops.
Remove Adult Tetras From The Tank
Fish eggs are semi-transparent and small. So, they are hard to find out. Eggs are usually in the gravel or the plants. As soon as you see the eggs, remove adult Neon Tetras, or else they will swallow your eggs.
Watch for The Eggs to Hatch
The eggs will take at least 36 hours to hatch. After the eggs will hatch, you will see Neon Tetras fry wobbling on the bottom of the tank. Further, it will take at least 5 days for them to swim freely, and also feed them.
What If The Eggs Aren’t Hatching?
It happens. Unfertilized eggs do not hatch. Additionally, as I said earlier, if you do not separate adult fish and eggs, your eggs will no longer remain in the tank. Adult Neon Tetras will eat them.
You can remove any one of them. But, if you plan to remove eggs, then make sure you keep them outside for only 2 seconds and immediately place them in convenient water conditions.
Step 3: It is Very Important to Take Care of The Baby
Feed The Fry With Special Food
After the fry starts swimming freely in the tank, you must begin to feed them. You don’t want to feed them the same food you feed adults. Give them special foods.
Begin by giving them half the cup of infusoria- rich water twice a day. After a few days, you can feed them baby Brine Shrimp or micro worms. You can easily get these in pet stores. Do not forget to provide them enough food.
Do Not Forget to Maintain Water Quality
The fry will grow day by day for sure, and as they become 2 weeks old, you must start changing the water inside the tank. The fry is very sensitive to the bad water condition. So, you have to change 1 quart of water every day. Remember to keep the water clean and healthy.
However, after a few weeks, the fry will start showing a blue stripe, after then you can slow down the changes in the water condition.
Also Read: Tetra Fry Care – How to Care for Baby Tetras?
Introduce Baby Tetras to Adult Ones
When your baby Neon Tetras become about 3 months old, you can introduce them to your adult Neon Tetras. At this time, they are not at any risk of getting swallowed.
Further, as baby tetras are very prone to diseases and sensitive to injuries, they can die even after so much care. In that case, you just have to do nothing.
Also Read:
Best Tank Size For Keeping Neon Tetra
Neon Tetra Behavior: Are They Aggressive/Fighting or Playing?
Having Problem in Determining If Neon Tetra is Pregnant or Just Fat, Or Just Sick?
People usually have confusion over a pregnant Neon Tetra and sick Neon Tetra. Neon Tetras belly indeed gets fatter when they catch any kind of disease. Under such circumstances, hobbyists think their Neon Tetras are pregnant, and they do not give more thought.
But, later when fish die, the owner’s heart will break as well as he/she has confusion. If a male Neon Tetra has a bigger belly, then it has caught the disease. So, you are not free to believe that your fish is pregnant, only because it has a big stomach.
Similarly, Neon Tetras also get fat, but may not be pregnant or even sick. When the nitrate level is very high in the water, your fish gets fatter. Keep the nitrate level between 10 and 20 ppm. Thus, instead of being confused, just change the water timely.
How Long Does Neon Tetras Take to Lay Eggs?
The female Neon Tetra will spawn 60- 130 eggs which is easily fertilized by the male Neon Tetra.
But, this doesn’t mean all the eggs will hatch. The eggs will take about 36 hours to hatch, and soon you will see 40- 50 baby Neon Tetras hatching from the eggs.
Wrap- Up
Neon Tetras being fascinating and peaceful creatures, people love to have Neon Tetras in their aquarium. And, as it is not a tough job to breed them, you can grow as many Neon Tetras as you want in your home. Isn’t this awesome? You just have to follow some simple steps to get breeding right.
You Might Want To Read: Breeding Tetra Fish – Step By Step Guide
