# Breeding cardinal tetras?



## chuckthefishguy (Mar 13, 2005)

does any one know anything about breeding cardinal tetras?
how can yuo tell a male from a female? could yuo just give me some pointers. im gonna try and save some money by breeding these guys i can have a bunch for a small price. 
-chuck


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## Jason Baliban (Mar 3, 2005)

I have never seen anything about breeding cards. From what I have read, nobody breeds them. I believe that all speciments are from the wild. I could be wrong.....I am almost hoping that I am :icon_bigg !!
jB


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## chuckthefishguy (Mar 13, 2005)

or does any one have evperience in breeding neons?


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

I have heard that cardinals and neons don't breed in the home aquarium. It has something to do with the conditions that cause them to spawn in the wild. In the spring fresh water washes into the rivers from the mountains and rains and causes a shift in the water parameters. Why that can't be reproduced with large water changes I'm not sure, but there is probably more to it than I am remembering. 
Edit: I just did a quick search on the subject and found that they say it can be done. Apparently you handle it just like normal breeding, with conditioning on plentiful and live foods. You then follow that with one or several large water changes with RO water, since it has to have no hardness. You then have to remove the fish (after they lay the eggs, of course) as they are egg eaters.
I couldn't find any examples of people having successfully done it, but there were at least examples of people saying it can be done.
-Aphyosemion


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

Here's a pretty good article:

Breeding Cardinal Tetras

.


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

That is an excellent article. Unfortunately, breeding cardinals seems even a little more difficult than I had previously thought. The articles I found didn't mention anything about the blackout, though this article seemed to think it was vital to success.
I can get juvenile neons (though not cardinals) for 3 for a buck at my LFS, so I wouldn't go through that much work for neons, but maybe for cardinals if I wanted that many for some reason...
-Aphyosemion


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## StLouisGuy (Nov 12, 2004)

Lately I have been getting Cardinals for $2 each. That almost made my school of 30 reasonable.


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

I'm surprised that neons and cardinals are only from the wild...in fact, I find it hard to believe. All the LFSs I go to just about, have one or the other(or both), usually in large quantities. There has to be quite a few people out there who breed them. The cardinals go for $1.29/ea at one of the LFSs and I sometimes see neons for $0.99/ea.

And, STLouisGuy, have you have trouble with them dying off? Also, how large is your tank? I'm just curious about how much room the larger schools are generally given.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I used to breed Neons, kinda happened rather than intented. They seemed to spread a couple of eggs over a period rather than all at once. They fell into the gravel and were protected from the adults that way

Very soft water seems to help, and the youngsters are tiny tiny, bringing them up requires some patience. I think an established planted tank would be helpful as it provides microorgs for their food. Artemia will be too large first.

Oh yeah... I don't remember if I ever brought any up successfully... long time ago. Probably easier to buy them in the store :icon_bigg


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

The price on them at my LFS is $1.99 _when they have them._ The owner will not order any, and his supplier will not send any, if the weather is at all cool as they say they will not tolerate chilling at all. Also, my LFS mentioned something about (his supplier is in Florida) when the weather is cold the fish go deep into the ponds and won't come up into the traps  ? I have no idea if these are "holding" ponds or "breeding" ponds, I didn't seek any further information.


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

If all I had to do was run some extremely soft water into the tank and then deal with feeding the babies that would be one thing, but I'm not especially excited about the extra step of needing a special black breeding tank and a very low PH. Maybe just a 5 gallon pail with a lid on would work?
I seriously think someone has to be breeding them, because at my LFS like I mentioned, I can get them 3 for a buck and those are all juveniles. Those are neons though, not cardinals. I think breeding cardinals would be more profitable.
-Aphyosemion


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## AW0L (Jan 15, 2004)

neons are breed comercially now and not many are caught from the wild and are easier to breed then cardinals. cardinals are harder and many are still being imported wild.

ive gotten cardinals to breed many times but the eggs are not viable or the fry die or get eatten when they are stuck the the glass. the eggs and fry are light sensitive so you need to tone the lights down alot or it will kill the fry and eggs. i have not seen how the eggs looks when its viable but ive seen plenty of them dead. they are laid on the rock surface of a cave and mine seem to be brown when i find them. the females are fuller and rounder then the males. they will eat the fry espically if you feed moving food like ostacods! ive had this happen alot. so far no success in raiseing the fry. most of the time im too late or lazy or i dont have a extra cycled tank to put them in. currently im breeding other fish so ive never actually put any effort to raise the fry other then provided a good enviroment for them to spawn in.

my tank is a planted 10 gal with slate rock works and drift wood for caves painted black on 3 sides. i add blackwater tannins into the tank the water is 5.9 ph to 6.2 used peat to lower it, and is at 1-2 dh it changes depending on water changes since i use almost pure rain water. ive noticed if you dont change the water but keep the water in good condition with nitrate absobing plants like hornorth and amazon frogbits, anuff to block out the light and a high protein diet of daphina,ostacods and worms they will spawn. i keep them in a group of 8 currently 5 females 3 males and one neon that i got by accident with some plants and just tossed it in with them


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## chuckthefishguy (Mar 13, 2005)

RoseHawke said:


> Here's a pretty good article:
> 
> Breeding Cardinal Tetras
> 
> .



wow great artical it really helped. 
i wont be able to do any thign untill july but ill be sure to post pics when i get started. hopefully it will work!
-chuck


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## compulsion (Mar 2, 2004)

im trying to breed herbert axelrodi tehehe.. something like that, black neons anyway, i call them black cardinals because they allmost seem like aperfect cousin and also share a simular latin name, allright that might not be much to go on but it should be, they readily spawn in my tank with a hardness of 12 which sucks coz the eggs never survive.. they also get eaten pretty quick.

i have 1 female to 2 males in a 12 litre tank with rainwater, so far its been pretty hopeless but i think they need to be well settled before they will spawn. i havent read that article yet or any of the answeres.. (except the first couple) so some things i will say may have allready been said but, the eggs are light dependant, you can normaly stimulate spawning 2 times if your lucky, in my main tank i can switch the lights off for ten minuets then back on and occasionaly they will spawn but running one tube, the light or water like i said is no good but they ravish each other, any that arnt doing the buisness are gobbling up the eggs, if you get them happy and established in a small tank use marbles or something like clay tubes.. i used marbles and cut sillicone tubing to make a base for the eggs to fall into.

tomorow im moving the tank into the sunlight so the natual light can do the work, ill add cover to darken it accordingly but i dont think useing a tube light unless like i said there happy and established in the breeding quaters or it will just spook them out. if there not established and have come from a big tank they will not spawn! theyll be to sketchy to want to..

the colour of them will indicate to you if there happy, but you proberly allready know this, but its supprising to see them change from there lush colour to a scared mode dull.

prime them with live foods, ive recently set up a pond which gives me plently of bloodworm, but im still to gain experience with live fry food.
ill post a link to culturing live food.. everything i suggest is what ive learnt about black cardinals btw.. but i really do think the methods will work for cardinals. 

include lots of roots and javamoss, or make do with some synthetic. the game is to get your breeding fish as happy and settled in the breeding tank as possible. unless your useing an RO unit of your own you might want to make the most out of the water youll use, thats why i used a small container anyway.

ph 6 GH about 0 proberly 1 would be more freindly. keep us informed i wouldent mind tryng this knowing someone else is doing it. i have exactly the same intentions for breeding i want a nice school, and maybe storecredit 

good luck, oh yeah thats what i was gonna say. the females that spawn are normaly big and fat, and have like a point were there stomach is, picure them having eaten something like a glasschipping and its ready to come out, the point also seems more shinnier, i cant take a pic of any coz my cams dead but youll know what i mean once you see it, the girth of the belly gets wider aswell when this little 'glint' shows. im pretty certain this is the eggs ready to spawn as it goes once the have done the buisness.


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## tropicaltree48 (Apr 1, 2005)

There is probably no truth to it at all... But I heard that a couple was trying to breed fish (I forget what kind), and nothing would work. Then they spilled a little bit of coffee in the aquarium, and within a day or 2 the fish started laying eggs left and right! Sounds pretty crazy to me, but there may be some truth to it. It is pretty accepted that cloudy water helps in breeding. So maybe give coffee (or something else that would cloud up the water and be safe for the fish) a try! Let me know if it helps at all.


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## chuckthefishguy (Mar 13, 2005)

tropicaltree48 said:


> There is probably no truth to it at all... But I heard that a couple was trying to breed fish (I forget what kind), and nothing would work. Then they spilled a little bit of coffee in the aquarium, and within a day or 2 the fish started laying eggs left and right! Sounds pretty crazy to me, but there may be some truth to it. It is pretty accepted that cloudy water helps in breeding. So maybe give coffee (or something else that would cloud up the water and be safe for the fish) a try! Let me know if it helps at all.



was it decaf or regular?


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## compulsion (Mar 2, 2004)

funny i was thinking of adding a teabag, normaly style PG tips hehe
i read somewere useing green tea is good but i think that was for breeding bettas. im gonna try useing a teabag now actually.

im sure it wont harm them, i have 1 female and 2 males.. ill post if it gives them the horn or just kills them tomorow


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## compulsion (Mar 2, 2004)

they seem more chilled, ive covered the tank with a black binbag and now i can peek in without spooking them. ide recommend the tea if you have nothing else to tan the water with


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## John P. (Apr 10, 2004)

I believe my Cardinals have spawned over the last couple of weeks. Two went behind the Hemianthus Micranthemoides, demonstrated spawning behavior, left, and then there was a huge amount of Cherry Shrimp that converged in the area. I think they were eating the eggs.


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

compulsion said:


> ... read somewere useing green tea is good but i think that was for breeding bettas. im gonna try useing a teabag now actually...


Well, that makes sense, they (bettas) *are *oriental ... :wink:


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## compulsion (Mar 2, 2004)

my mum has two cardinals in her tank ones showing a fat gut so im thinking of pinching them and putting them in the breeding tank.. either that or a couple neons. im not to into neons but as there supposidly easier i might go for it.

my black cardinals spawned in the main tank again today :icon_roll why the hell dont they spawn in the right conditions.. yet go for there lives in the not so right conditions.


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## Guest (Nov 22, 2013)

*breeding cardinal tetras*

last Knight my Cardinal tetras ,corydoras trillineatus og siamese fighting Fish all spawned at the same time in a comunity tank  23 C havent mesured the water paramaters yet. low light . lots of plants on one side of the tank , sand substrate . and i feed them micro Worms and Walter Worms ,shrimp pellets and infusoria is in the sand. lots of floating plants . 530 liter tank With 6 Cardinal tetras , 2 siamese fighting Fish , 2 striped raphael catfish , 13 corydoras trillineatus , 6 corydoras leucomelas , 3 ancitrus catfish . exhited to see if some of the eggs from the Cardinals Hatches and survives


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