Pregnant neon tetra how to#

It’s important to remember never to change the water of your breeding tank during the first week of your fry’s lives. Once they have reached this age you can give them several small feedings each day to help promote their growth. You should save the larger foods such as brine shrimp and micro worms until the neon tetra fry are around 2 to 3 weeks old. It is possible to buy commercial fry foods, however, live food is better for younger fish. Green water or vinegar eels will be ideal as the fry will find it easier to eat the smaller particles.

You should use the right kind of food for your smaller fish, so choosing smaller food sources will be essential. Once your neon tetra eggs have hatched, you will need to wait around 5 days or so before you add a small amount of food to their tank. When they become mature, you will need to move the young fish into your main tank, or give them away to family and friends. You can generally raise around 20 to 30 fry successfully in a 10 gallon tank. However, they will need more room once they start to grow. So they will need to have a properly sized tank for them to grow into adulthood.Ī 10 gallon tank will be ideal for rearing a large batch of freshly hatched fry. Now that you have successfully bred your neon tetras, you will want to ensure that they reach maturity. They should appear like small, tiny shards of glass drifting around the tank. You should be able to spot the small fry once they have hatched. If you leave the adult fish in the tank, they will likely eat the eggs and the fry once they’ve hatched. You should then remove the adults from the tank and place them back into their main tank. Once you have spotted the eggs, these have likely been fertilized. You should be able to see them stuck on plant leaves or moss, or even on the sandy floor of your tank.ĭid you know that a single female neon tetra can lay as many as 60 to 130 eggs? These typically take around 24 hours to hatch. They are typically round, small, and will be either yellow or clear white. Look for fish eggsįrustratingly, neon tetra eggs can be quite tricky to see. They should also give them all the necessary vitamins and minerals they need to increase the health of your entire tank. These foods are important because they will give your neon tetras the balanced diet they need. Bloodworms, brine shrimp, and Daphnia will be ideal. It will need to be high quality food that’s either live or high in protein. One of the most important factors for ensuring that your fish breed is to feed them the right food. Once your tank is ready, you can place the breeding pair into it. Any drastic changes to the chemistry of your water could prove fatal for the neon tetra, her eggs, and the fry. Try and keep the pH level around 6.0 or 7.0 if you can. It should be slightly acidic without any ammonia, nitrate, or nitrate contamination. Your water should be conditioned, filtered, and soft. Water temperature should be around 70℉ to 81℉, and a temperature of around 78℉ will help to encourage spawning. You will also need to control the light in the tank because of this. The fry will also be light sensitive, so this should shade them. A spawning mop will be a great addition as this will give the female neon tetra somewhere to lay her eggs. In your new tank, you will need to give it a dark, sandy bottom, as well as add some live plants and moss. A 5 to 10 gallon tank should be just fine. This should be smaller than your normal tank. Most importantly you will need a separate breeding tank for your fish.

If you spot any male tetras swimming in a square pattern, with jumpy movements, freezing quickly before continuing to swim, this could indicate that they are trying to court a female. Males tend to try and court the females, and will display behavior which can give the game away. If they have a more swollen belly, chances are that they’re carrying eggs.Īnother indicator that your neon tetras might be ready to breed is in how the males behave. So this should allow you to identify if your female neon tetras have any physical changes to their appearance.

Pregnant neon tetra how to#

So now we know how to tell the male and female neon tetra fish apart. Larger diagonal neon blue line Note changes of behavior and appearance.So you’ll need to observe them carefully to distinguish between them. How to tell the difference between male and female neon tetrasīefore you start to get excited about the idea of baby fry in your tanks, you’ll need to know which fish are the males and which are the females.