Malta Aquarist Society

  HI i wanted to ask if anybody has had any personal experience in breeding the Congo tetra. I had bought 4 Congo tetras. They were quite small, however in the big tank they grew up pretty quickly. And  I have two males and two females. To say the truth I did not think any more about it. But the other week i noticed a strange behaviour and realised that one had paired up and were breeding and laying eggs. It was a beautiful site to see, and you could see the other male trying to breed with the female and being chased away by the first male who was already breeding with the female. Of course i did not pick up any eggs as these were soon being eaten by the other tetras

  I have now moved them to another tank with soft water. It is 4 feet so quite big. They are now getting used to the big tank . I have done a little research and i read that the bottom should be heavily planted.

 Has anybody ever breed them in a glass bottom tank?  Any info greatly appreciated

 Frank

 Frank, to tell you the truth I have never bred them but I have these wonderful tetras and they also bred in the past inn one of my comunity tank. Yes they need a fairly big tank specially if they are large specimens. I know they love clean water on the soft acid side. You can either do a tank with gravel and plants and as soon as they breed you remove the parents. Or else you do a bare tank and place the breeding pair in a separate net so that the eggs will drop to the bottom. But be careful as their fry are very tiny and you have to feed infusoria for the first few days, up the micro worms and then onto newly hatched BBS. Keep us informed mate as these are wonderful tetras to breed.

martin 

 Hi martin

 Thanks for the info. Well they are in a bare tank, and i will try to keep it that way. I do not have that many plants and the ones i have usually do  not live that long either.  When you said about the net what did you mean. Well at the moment they are being kept in a 4 foot fish tank, so it is not that small. I was thinking of splitting up the males from the females. And then eventually let them together.  Although these fish are peaceful i wonder if they are sometimes tail nippers. I bought some fancy  goldfish, and i noticed that one of them has had its tail severly nipped. The funny thing is that the others have not been touched only this one.

 Frank

You have to feed female congo tetras to be conditioned and full of eggs ready to spawn. They normally lay eggs early in the morning at early sunrise. I usually put the female first in the breeding tank in the morning to acclimatize herself in the tank and then put 2 males late in the afternoon with the female. You can put 1 male to 1 female as well. If I were you I would not mix tetras such as the congos, blind cave, buenos aires, bucktooth, and other medium sizes tetras with fancy goldfish. They fish are too slow for these kind of tetras which like open waters to swim fast against the current unlike the fancy goldfish. Articles say that fish fins are sweet and that is why they tend to get nipped by nippers such as these tetras. If the nipping persists the fish will eventually die with exhaustion.

 martin 

hi thank for the info.

 Well the fancy gold fish are housed with the tetras only temporarily.. They will soon go to a new home,.  I actually bought them for a friend and i have not had the time to pass them over. One thing i would like to know, how would you know the females are full of eggs. When mine bred in the tank i did not notice any difference. Also what would you feed them. I think that they only eat food from the top and once it sinks to the bottom they do not seem to touch it. I have tried blood worms but they do not seem to like it that much. You also mentioned the net can you please explain a bit more about that.

 frank

 When feeding well the females will have a rounder belly compared to the males. I usually separate the sexes for two weeks prior to breeding so that I have control on them, and not breeding before. I continue feeding brine shrimp and bloodworms (I don't know how yours don't eat bloodworms) until I see the female is fat enough.

Hi cikkus. 

Reggea had bred the congo tetra and he wrote this article on this forum on the thread What fish have you bred?? . I paste it here for you.

I bred the Congo Tetra about eight years ago and the following were the conditions which proved most successful to me:

Volume of sterile breeding tank: 80 litres.

Aeration: One small airstone positioned in the back corner with moderate strength.

Lighting: No artificial lights, only indirect natural light through a large Northwesternly window directly facing the fishroom.

Position of Aquarium: Top shelf and practically out of sight!

Water conditions: Rainwater pre filtered with activated carbon, then allowed to stand in contact with peat until the water turned very dark brown and the pH reached 5. The heater was set to 26 celsius. Needless to say that the water was very soft.

Conditioning of broodstock: A group of three females and two males (mature) were conditioned for two weeks in a community aquarium on a diet of black mosqito larvae, freshwater copepods enriched with algae, frozen bloodworm and high quality flakes.

Method: I placed a trio of two females and one male in the breeding tank, which contained a false bottom of sterile plastic wind breaker. Once in the tank I couldn't see the fish, due to the dark colour of the water! I left them there for five days, checking the bottom daily using a penlight with a red filter on the lens. On day five, EARLY IN THE MORNING, (I think sunrise was the trigger) I witnessed the mating event which took about three hours in all with both females spawning.

Fry: The fry hatched after a number of hours (sorry but don't remember after how much!) and when free swimming were offered a diet of paramecium (infusoria cultured using baby milk formula) and small grade artemia. The young fish grew steadily after they were weaned onto dry powdered food and enriched small daphnia.

On my first two attempts, I left the broodstock in the breeding tank for three days, according to a breeding record I read, but didn't spawn. It was only when I left them for five days that they spawned, perhaps my fish never read the article. At first the mortality rate was quite high but eventually managed to raise about 100 young. 

Thanks Brandon.

Hi

Thanks for your reply. Do you think they will eat brine shrimps, after all they are quite big for tetras. I will try to split them up so that i can condition the females. Well i will see if they actually eat the blood worms or not. I am not sure,but once the worms sink to the bottom they do not eat them, though the fancy goldfish have a feast. They eat anything even beef heart.

Frank

 Hi Brandon

 Thanks for bringing me this article to my notice. I had not seen it before. It is very well explained. Well the first mistake i am making for sure is that the temperature is too high for them. I guess i might as well switch off the heater, as it is 80 the same temperature i keep the discus in.The idea for the plastic wind breaker is a good idea and i will certainly use it. But i will first have to get rid of the gold fish. I had bought them for a friend but have not given them to him yet the thank is facing a window so no artificial light is needed. At first the  tetras were afraid but i put in a few plastic plants and they seem to have settled down now. Probably a water change will trigger them off once the females are full of eggs.

thanks

 frank

 The articles written are very accurate Cikkus. Yes this is not really the right time of year to breed certain species as normally it is cooler water that triggers breeding. You must also try to cultivate some live mosquito larvae Cikkus as the fish go mad when feeding them these. Very simple, just leave a fairly large container of water in the sun and you will have lots of mosquito larvae in no time.

martin

 Make sure you leave the windows closed Cikkus!!

 Well, there are always the frozen foods which do quite well for conditioning fish too .

martin