Breeding Neon Tetras

scottward

Hi. I have tried several times now to breed my neon tetras. I place the conditioned male and female into the spawning tank, the fish do indeed spawn, but the eggs always fungus.
The tank is covered with newspaper and a dark towel over the top so that it's nice and dark inside. It is covered in this way as soon as the fish are introduced to the tank (so they are also spawning in darkness), and the cover is never removed allowing any sunlight in.
The tank is filled with 100% rainwater.
The fish are over 1 year old, so I assume they are mature enough.
What could the problem be? All the eggs fungus within a few hours of being layed - I am guessing that they are infertile.
I have tried different males - could all my males be infertile?
Water temperature is 25 degrees C - is this too warm?
Rainwater - so no hardness issues.
pH - I have tried neutral and also have reduced it down to pH 6.0 - eggs still fungus.
Scott.

Fishin Pole

sounds like your doing everything correct, only thing i can think of is maybe add an airstone with very little air going thru it........Try to up the oxygen in the water, but not to the point of disturbing the breeding tetras too much........Good luck and let us know if you have any success

SinCrisis

you can add the stone after they spawn if it has to do with water movement.

scottward

Hi. Thanks for the ideas.

I have successfully bred other fish using the same technique but without the airstone - do neon eggs require much more oxygen than normal?

Last night I set the fish up to spawn this time with a small sponge filter in the tank (which was bubbling away gently oxygenating the water). Tonight, yet again, the fish have spawned but every single egg is white.

I'm thinking I have dud males?

Scott.

jr.masterbreeder

Did you try the air stone yet?
I think fishin pole is right.
But you CAN turn it on after they spawn...
maybe try cleaning a bit of the gravel?
That could be it.
OR maybe with a slight chance...
all of your males are infertile...

SinCrisis

well its super unlikely to have all infertile males, that would jsut be terrible luck... Neons generate very little waste, the gravel is unlikely to be dirty to the point where it will effect the fish's breeding cycle.