Breeding the Buenos Aires Tetra

[Rob Tetrazona]

I'd like to share the experience of breeding a Tetra, so I have selected the Buenos Aires Tetra since I'm currently trying to BAP this species. I've struggled raising the fry with several failed attempts this year already, so I hope to have learned enough to make this attempt finally successful, but let's not keep our fingers crossed. Let's just think optimistically. My method is a pretty general approach that I use on all species of Tetras that I breed.

Parents the night before spawning, right before the slow drip acclimation to the breeding tank's very soft RO water. The female is much larger than the male. This is a 1 gallon container to be used for the drip acclimation.



Here is a video of the parents

http://youtu.be/Feqhzdg-aQI

Here's the pair in the 5.5G breeding tank after being acclimated. Egg trap to separate the parents from the eggs, java moss & rotala for spawning media.



Here's a better shot of the bottom which is pretty clean.



My morning round of tending to my fish room starts at 6:30AM each day. At this time which was right after turning on the lights of the tanks that I'm about to feed (not this one), I was fortunate enough to witness the first couple of eggs being dropped, but when I came back to check on the tank at 7:30AM after eating breakfast and getting ready for work, I found many eggs on the tank bottom.

[Rob Tetrazona]

Here's a closer look at the eggs. They're pretty tiny and the pic is kind of blurry, but you get the idea. There will be many more when I get home from work at which time I'll take some new pics.



The eggs should hatch out in the next 24-36 hours. They will get fungused pretty quickly, but most of the eggs will hatch anyway, because they are healthy. I did not see many opaque, white eggs which are infertile and fungus quicker than they can hit the tank bottom. The eggs look clear (freshly laid) to cloudy white (developing) and I consider this to be the first indicator of a healthy batch. The second indicator is how well the fry develop. I don't use chemicals to treat fungus and I'm just starting to experiment with alder cones, but even my alder cones get fungus growing on them! LOL! Most Tetra eggs hatch so quickly, preventitive fungus treatment is not necessary. However by this time tomorrow, the entire tank bottom will be covered by a blanket of fungus. This is very normal for this species. Most species are usually nowhere close to this bad. After I get home from work tomorrow, I will siphon out all of the fungus, debris, and fry into 1 gallon containers then meticulously under a bright desk light, separate the fry from the dirty water, strain the water, then return the fry and the strained water back into the breeding tank. I'm going to attempt to pull off some other experiments with this batch too, so stay tuned in and join me along the exciting journey of attempting to raise a batch of Tetras!

[davidkirley]

I will be watching this closely. Thanks for sharing your thoughts/methodology. Keep it coming!

[Darryl]

Ryan,

You should also consider writing an article (much like you have here) for the Fincinnati. That way it can be shared with numerous clubs throughout the country. Steve is always looking for articles, and who knows, you might just win $100 at the end of the year....just a thought

[Rob Tetrazona]

I will gladly let Ryan write the article!

[Jerry R]

Real Nice - Thnx

[Rob Tetrazona]

These pics were taken on Friday night. Safely above the trap, notice the slivers of glass on the tank sides if you zoom in.



But below the trap is a nasty blanket of fungus.



I drained the tank into 1 gallon containers then removed the fry from the nasty, fungused water. The water smelled so bad of rotten fish that I almost gagged! I probably retrieved ~200 fry in all.



The fry went into a tea cup.

[Rob Tetrazona]

Here they are with the macro setting I found on my camera! You can still see the egg sacs.



I returned all but 50 of the fry back into the freshly cleaned tank w/ fresh water that has the same parameters as before. I decided to put the 50 into a 1 G container off to the side just in case.

[Rob Tetrazona]

I started feeding microworms on Saturday, because it looked like some had used up their egg sacs already.

Today, Monday, I removed about 2 dozen dead fry from the tank and about 1 dozen from the container. Not sure if they are too small for microworms. I threw some water wisteria trimmings in with them just in case they need smaller food.

[Rob Tetrazona]

It's been 1 week since the eggs were laid and the number of survivors is at a minimum. It seems like there are more survivors in the 1G container than in the 5.5G tank which is strange. These guys seem to be growing very slowly if at all and don't seem to be eating much. Most tetra fry fill their bellies with food and these guys don't look like they are eating at all. This is by far one of the most difficult species of tetras I've ever attempted to raise. I wonder if I should try a new pair? I also wonder if I have quality breeding stock for this species? I will draw my conclusion sometime this year.