Colombian Tetras are now in my sights.

[knifegill]

Has anybody bred these around here in Washington? Did you need any triggers or did they just randomly start popping eggs out for you? I've read their breeding profiles around the web and it sounds pretty straight forward, just looking for some first hand experience.

My water is naturally amazon soft so I buffer it with crushed coral. I can easily use this to my advantage to adjust pH for a spawning trigger. Any thoughts on other parameters like temperature?

Currently have four of them in a 20g with plastic grating on the bottom and a gap below that for eggs to be in.

 

[knifegill]

They're well-conditioned on live, frozen and prepared foods and maple leaf tea. They play and wiggle and for all I know there are eggs being laid. The dumb thing is that I can't seem to close the gaps in my grating. I've got the plastic grids bowed up across the bottom but the edges don't press against the glass along the curves very well and one of the tetras seems to have a good time popping down there. How can I secure my grid better? The silicone prevents it from scooting it all the way over. Any ideas?

 

[aclockworkorange]

Haven't seen it done locally but good luck!

 

[knifegill]

Still enamored by these little blue piranha. They eat everything I feed them from teeny specks of fresh zucchini to sinking foods of all types.

The sucky thing is pulling out the screens to vacuum the turds and snails out. I wonder if they can even breed at their current size. The screens still don't fit right and one of them still makes regular excursions underneath. Help me, people. I want to breed these suckers. I got nothing on false bottoms. Whether I can spawn them or not I am definitely enjoying them.

Either way I'm definitely finding a way to have some in my living room. Hopefully I can mask the bottom so it looks nice from the front and still collect eggs to raise downstairs.

But, seriously, next time you're at an LFS with these fish, give their teeth a good stare. And their colors are coming in vividly now. They almost rival the neon tetra.

 

[robmcd]

Lets see some pics of them....

 

[knifegill]

Let's see an affordable camera that actually works.

Off the web, google has some good examples and some poor examples. Two of mine still look somewhat drab compared to the biggest four. OMG their red finnage is just crimson and the tinfoil blue back stripe of blue is getting bolder every day! I'm sure the maple leaf tea made them really happy. When I get a camera that works (maybe I'll see if I can trick this one into working again) I'll try to get a shot of the teeth.

 

[Laticauda]

Have you tried warming the tank, then doing a water change with cooler, softer/more acidic water to trick them into believing it's the wet season?

 

[spotfin]

I've got a small group in with my stingrays. They sure are pretty though. I've had them for almost 2 years, but haven't seen any signs of spawning. Good luck with yours.

 

[knifegill]

Have you tried warming the tank, then doing a water change with cooler, softer/more acidic water to trick them into believing it's the wet season?

I've only owned them for about seven days so I'm not going to do anything too stressful just yet. I have added leaf tannins and been feeding high-protein feed and blackworms. And they do look as happy as can be colorwise, though I'm seeing a few missing scales and wondering if they should be in a larger school than six.

I've got a small group in with my stingrays. They sure are pretty though. I've had them for almost 2 years, but haven't seen any signs of spawning. Good luck with yours.

So you haven't seen them dancing or you've just never found eggs? Cool idea to put them with stingrays. That must look awesome. How long are your tetras now without tail?

 

[spotfin]

I've only owned them for about seven days so I'm not going to do anything too stressful just yet. I have added leaf tannins and been feeding high-protein feed and blackworms. And they do look as happy as can be colorwise, though I'm seeing a few missing scales and wondering if they should be in a larger school than six.

So you haven't seen them dancing or you've just never found eggs? Cool idea to put them with stingrays. That must look awesome. How long are your tetras now without tail?

Haven't really seen them dancing, although a couple do display for each other on occasion. I have 4 left, after starting with 7. The not-so-smart ones were removed by the rays. Two new ones in a qt tank right now. You might want to get a few more to make a larger shoal.
Mine without the tail are about 2" long. How big are yours? They may not be mature yet. I post pics but they move alot.