# Congo Tetra breeding question



## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

that fish is a characin so it is a posibility that eggs are photosensitive. at least for most of them that is the pattern. The same for harlequin rasbora/espei
As for the food. JBL Nobil Fluid. That is what i use after they are free swimming.

to be more precise

Order: Characiformes
Family: Alestiidae

so i will take that eggs out. put them in a small tank in complete darkness at 25 celsius and a small sponge filter. this is my way for neons and rasboras


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Can JBL Nobil fluid be purchased from any of the major retailers in the US, or is this something to order online? Are there alternatives in case I can't find it?

Tom


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

hello tom
well...i honestly do not know. JBL is a big brand. Are you sure it is not present in your LFS?
As another alternative...i do not know one bc in oure lfs that is all i can see as liquid food for tiny fry.
Ok...there is the option of brine shrimp culture


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Thanks. I may try to grow some baby brine shrimp before my time is up 

I'll update this thread when they hatch (if they hatch ?)


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

i hope so 
breeding tetras is not a trivial job anyway


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

That is awesome! What are your water parameters and tank specifics to get them to spawn? I have a mixed school of Congos and would love to get them to lay eggs.


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Hikari First Bites is probably the easiest dry food to get.
Golden Pearls is wonderful food for fry.
Cyclops-Eeze is nearly perfect but it comes in a number of sizes. Go for small. 
Finely crushed flake is good to offer, in addition to the above. 

Good luck.


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

for 5-7 days fry liquid food like JBL Nobil Fluid or Artemia cultures are ok
I have First Bites. Hikari First bites = JBL Novo Tom from the size point of view. it is for fry of 2 weeks or so


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Thanks all for the advice, everyone.

mightyoak:

It's a 40 gallon long, 2 T5HO for lighting, heavily planted, no CO2 or Excel
pH 6.5, zero ammonia, nitrite, and (usually) phosphate. nitrate is usually between 5 and 10 ppm because of PMDD fertilization

ancient Fluval 103 and AC 70 HOB filter, peat is used in the canister

They're fed New Life Spectrum flakes, and frozen foods every now and then.

3 females and one male (I bought out the store)

Usually they spawn about an hour after the lights go on, just after feeding.

edit: very soft water and lots (too many) of floating plants.


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## toddnbecka (Sep 4, 2006)

Golden pearls are probably your best bet for a prepared food. Green water and infusoria would also be helpful for the first 2-3 weeks. Ideally, a well-established 20 gallon tank really overgrown with Najas. If you really want to raise any fry you will need either a separate tank or a suitable divider. A chunk of poret foam (mattenfilter) makes an awesome divider for a breeding tank, but wouldn't look the greatest in a planted show tank...


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

*early success!*

I was looking at my little breeding box today to make sure it wasn't getting too much light. As it turns out, there's already one little fry swimming around in there! He must have been from a previous spawning - those eggs didn't hatch in one day. He must have been lurking in the java moss patch. Looks like he's between one and two mm right now. He must be a cagey little rascal to have survived in the community tank at all.

It is also possible that this is guy is glowlight tetra fry, but I have only seen them spawn once or twice. It seems unlikely.

Guess I'll get over to the pet store today and pick up whatever fry food I can find.

Pictures when , or if, the little guy gets big enough to photograph.

Tom


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

from my experince with neon & rasbora fry. they get bigger at a more rapid pace if they stay in a net in thr big aquarium. There is already a popultion of protozoars ect etc...so they can feed
btw. glowlight are some of the easiest tatra to breed (easy for tetra standards)


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Fahnell (or anyone, really):

It looks like I have about six or seven fry now in the breeder box. They're hard to count because they're little, and nearly transparent.

I have been feeding very small amounts of Hikari first bites, and frozen baby brine shrimp. It's very difficult to tell if they're actually eating it. Every now and then they do dart through the water as though they're after something, but it's nothing I can see.

I have lots of floating Salvinia in my tank. Do you think it's worthwhile to grab a handful of this stuff, stir it up in a glass of tank water, and pour the resulting cloudy water into the breeding box? Might the cloudiness be the infusoria these guys should be eating?

Tom


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I'd just toss the Salvinia in the breeding box.

Yes, you should bring in lots of infusoria that way, plus fry appreciate having places to hide.


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

tom that will be great
btw. if they make it for in the first week then you are a winner 
from my experience fry raised by you will be
-stronger/resilient to illness (they are born in your water)
-grow helathier than the parents (parents maybe born in a no name farm in ast Asia)
-better colors
-better breeders when time will come
-less afraid of you 

From my. Only congrats for you Tom. and many many years for your little tetras
Now you have 6-7. Update me when they will breed in 1 year or so. I will bet on 50 fry at least

roud:


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Thanks Laura and Fahnell - the fry seem to be pecking at the roots of the Salvinia from time to time, so there must be something there.

There's a bunch of Salvinia in the breeding box now. I've got my fingers crossed - this is fascinating!

Tom


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## Fahnell (Jan 20, 2011)

i know it is
the tiny micro organism from the tank are a headstart for the fry. no liquid food will beat that
you will notice (i you have a sponge filter) that the fry also nibble at the filter for food 

btw. javamoss cand help too. if you have some


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Well... four days in and everything is looking good so far. The fry which appeared the day after I put the breeder box in the tank have increased in size, and this morning I watched as several of them ate frozen baby brine shrimp. I am also making cloudy water soup from the masses of the Salvinia and squirting that into their box with a small glass syringe I bought at a flea market. Glass syringes are terribly handy, by the way.

I still hope there will be another batch of fry coming soon from the eggs which were deposited in the moss four days ago.

http://laze.freeshell.org/graphics/congo_fry_3day.JPG


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## toddnbecka (Sep 4, 2006)

If they're large enough to eat bbs you have a good chance of raising them. Decapped brine shrimp eggs are also good for fry too small for bbs.


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

One week in to the experiment now. Hard to tell, but it looks like there are about eleven little Congo tetras in the breeder box, now. From a few different spawnings it looks like - there are some variations in size.

I'm going to try introducing the Hikari first bites again pretty soon. Some of the larger fry are over a half cm., and they may be able to eat these now. The smaller ones are still eating infusoria (I assume) and baby brine shrimp.

Tom


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

4 weeks into this experiment now. Here's a photo of two of my largest fry. They're a little over a centimeter, and they're all eating tiny fragments of New Life Spectrum flakes. There are eleven altogether.










Sorry for the poor quality, my macro lens is manual focus 

The thing in the background is the filter intake for my AC 20, wrapped in foam and an old nylon filter bag.


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Cool. Congratulations. 
Rearing fry up to where they eat flake foods is the hard part. 
Time to get the java moss back in the tanks and repeat the process until you're tired of them and move on to another species.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Awesome, congrats!!!


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

They're really neat, and it's been a great learning experience. I'll take two or three of the males and round out my school in my big tank when they're old enough.

Fortunately, my brother is a Congo tetra addict, and has a large number of tanks, so I'm sure he'll adopt some.

I'd love to keep breeding because it's so interesting, but I have to find good homes for these guys. So far it's been a struggle to keep to one largish tank and one quarantine tank in my house. I fear tank proliferation if I really get into it. My poor brother spends an hour per day minimum maintaining his twelve or so tanks. Too much!

Tom


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## stac545 (Sep 2, 2008)

Congratulations on the fry, Are they all grown now and did you ever get any more spawns out of the adults? My congos were spawning regularly in my 125g so I tried to move a pair into a 29g and got them to spawn but silly me forgot to turn the heater back on after doing a water change and lost all of the eggs. Never did get them to spawn again after trying a couple more weeks. The spawning mops are now in the 125g. I would love to see some more pics of the fry.
Great thread, I dont find too much info on spawning these on the internet.

Stacy


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

They are all grown now, and they look great. Especially the males, which are over three inches long and have long flowy fins. They still spawn fairly regularly.

Some observations - they spawn in the morning after the tank lights come on, and they've been fed. New Life Spectrum pellets and flakes, frozen brine shrimp, and a few other, less frequent, dry foods. They usually only spawn over big clumps of java moss. Get some in your tank if you'd like them to spawn again. My tank pH is 6.0, so maybe that helps. I also don't use CO2, I have no idea whether that's a factor.

Side note: I have a profusion of paleatus cories that have been spawning as well over the past couple months. So they seem to like the conditions, too.

Probably unrelated to spawning: All the Congo tetras seem to like nibbling on the Salvinia minima in my tank. It's a floating, rapidly spreading aquatic fern.

Good luck with your Congos. I'll try to answer any other spawning questions you might have.

edit: added two images from when they were six months old. They're more than a year old now, and very large and colorful.


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## stac545 (Sep 2, 2008)

Your fish look great !!!! Thank you so much for offering advice for me. I was watching my tetras today for a couple hours and the Emperor's were spawning like crazy (like they do every couple days) but the Congo males werent interested in the females today. They were too into showing off to each other. I have so much java moss that i am constantly pulling some out and they do really like it. So I pulled the two mops out today from the Emperor's and got at least 30 eggs to mess around with. I put them into a covered 10g tank (darkened) till they are free swimming. My water is soft from our water softener (around 3gh) but the ph is on the higher side at 7.4-7.6. I have seen them spawn in the 125 many times but i just need to see it in order to grab the eggs when they are done because they LOVE to eat them as they are scattering them.
Stacy


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Your Congos look great, too. I'd love to spawn Emperors some day. That must be fun having a bunch of emperor kids around.


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## Powchekny (Jan 25, 2010)

Also, not sure if it's relevant, but - I have 9 female Congos and only 4 males. Also, a large amount of floating plants. Salvinia minima and Tiger Lotus leaves cover a large amount of the surface of the tank.


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## stac545 (Sep 2, 2008)

I have 2 females and 6 males only because when i ordered them from the store they were too young to sex and they were a good price. That was the luck of the draw. I was thinking about getting some more females soon. I saw some young ones for $2.99, that is an awesome price.... Most of the older ones around our area are $15. I do enjoy always having baby emperor's around. Usually every couple weeks there are 2 new babies. The snails must get the others. Darn things... I started with 2 adult emperors and now have almost 30. Now my glowlights are another story. 
I guess I will get more females and see how it goes.
Stacy


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