The Planted Tank Forum banner

Which tetra will naturally multiply in 250gallon planted tank?

6K views 30 replies 7 participants last post by  rafini 
#1 ·
Hi everybody,

I am new on this forum and was hoping that you guys could help me with some advice for a large (250gallon/950L) nature aquarium that I want to set up.

I would really like to work with fish species that will be able to produce fry and grow their numbers naturally in the environment once it matures without actively breeding them in separate setups. Feedback and experiences that can help me would be much appreciated!

Some fish I am currently considering:

Bottom/mid - Corydoras pygmaeus / pygmy cory (starting with a shoal of 25+)
Mid/top - X-Ray Tetra (Pristella maxillaris) or Colombian tetra (Hyphessobrycon columbianus), starting as well with a shoal of roughly 25 individuals.

I would likely stick to only one Tetra species and one bottom dweller to keep the tank looking as natural as possible, and would like both species to form dense schools that grow their own numbers over time once the aquarium matures. In addition to those species, I might also house a few Siamensis algae eaters and Amano or cherry shrimp to help out with the algae.

Some additional context:
I am planning a very natural looking, low bioload, low maintenance open top aquascape with only a few species in large schools. For planting I would like to create some densely planted areas with Bolbitis growing both underwater and emersed on top of large pieces of driftwood, with other species most likely including anubias, java fern, crypts mosses and potentially other low-tech tolerant species. I will also add some tiger lilly's in nutrient rich substrate/pots to provide additional cover on the top of the aquarium.

Sorry for the long post, but I would love to hear everybody's feedback and experiences to help me understand if this project could work out the way that I intend it to.

Please feel free to suggest other fish species if you feel that they would better achieve my vision:fish: but keep in mind I am not looking for typical live bearers and would ideally include south american tetra's!

Many thanks! ramon
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I had a school of Diamond Tetras breed w/o assistance. They are truly beautiful when mature.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the input, they are indeed beautiful, although I would ideally find a species that is a little more subtle in its coloring. Did the fry that grew up in the tank manage to increase the size of your shoal over time? I would be very interested to get an idea how long it would take to e.g. double the shoal size and if less fry made it to maturity once overall bioload increased due to reproduction :)
 
#5 ·
Most small tetras and danios produce very small larvae that tend to attach themselves to the glass for the first day or so, making an easy buffet.
The easy way to make tetras and danios, just look in the gallery under my pics there is a photo of a small 10 gal setup, but change the filter to a foam type, and have it barely running( otherwise you will churn the baby fish to death).
You place a few pairs of adult fish with big fat-bellied females and thin males (smaller males are more effective at fertilising) In the tank for a day or two, they normally spawn in the morning almost every day.
Return adults to the community/large tank and now keep an eye out for fry. You can pretty much ignore the tank for the first week (2 for tetras). Just put a crap-tonne of java moss in after pulling the parents. It will keep the tiny larvae alive until you can start feeding them. You can leave a large tub of water outdoors where it can go green in the sun, pour some of that water in the tank to feed very young larvae.

This method can net you 200 fry in a go... I use it for danios and tetras. (I do not recommend breeding danios without outdoor ponds), they are incredibly sensitive to getting all the nutrients they required in the first days and weeks of life or they will all be deformed.

You can buy 6 corys, two fat girls and 4 small males. After the fry are out of the 10 gal, you put the corys in there. Try and keep them happy with lots of water changes, a nice sandy bottom, regular frozen bloodworms and treats. They often respond to water changes. You will learn to recognize when the females are swimming with their ventral fins cupped like praying hands... eggs are deposited on the glass and on plant leaves. Scrape em off with a razor blade and deposit in a guppy breeding net. Babies will eat powdered food and love BBS, actually the parents too... they will keep the net clean by sucking leftover food from the bottom.

 
#8 ·
Nordic, many thanks for your elaborate advice! I definitely agree that a separate breeding tank will yield much better results, but I was curious if there are tetra species that breed prolific enough that they will naturally balance their numbers in a large enough mature aquarium with plenty of plants and java moss. However, I will keep your advice in mind if natural propagation won't work!

I will do a measurement of my water tonight, maybe that info will provide some additional insights for selecting the right species.
 
#9 ·
Sure you may get the odd survivor for reasons supplied, but seriously, if you have a quarantine tank, it can easily be put to use as a breeder, I don't even use heaters for 5 months of the year.
Most of these fish can be raised large enough to breed again in 9 weeks. It is even more productive than trying to breed livebearers. You do one good breeding like this and you have fish up the wazoo, to go swap at the LFS for what you want. I grow my fry out outdoors in 1000litre flow bins that are cut in half. Covered kiddie pools would work just as well
 
#10 ·
Agree, that is certainly a good point, and I might end up using a breeder tank to help my odds a little bit. However, it would be an interesting experiment to see if creating a self sustaining population/ecosystem would work in a very natural and lightly stocked 250g tank :) Do you happen to have experience with the tetra species I mentioned in my original post and know if they breed easily in the aquarium? I would also love to hear some other species that forum members have had success with that do not require very specific parameters and could potentially multiply under the conditions I described!

I quickly checked my water parameters and got the following:

PH: 7
KH: 3
GH>7

Happy to hear some ideas! Ramon
 
#11 ·
No personal experience here breeding egg layers.
I have heard that both Galaxy Rasbora and White Clouds will spawn regularly and they are unique in that they do not predate on their own young.
I had a shoal of 6 pygmy cories in with guppy fry I was growing out and they do not bother even newborn fry so a good bottom feeder choice there.
They also occupy mostly the mid to upper water column, they school more like tetras than cories. but they come to rest at the bottom and on decor.

I have christmas moss in all my tanks, It just keeps growing and growing. I feed the excess to my Mbuna, it grows nice and thick for fry to live in.
 
#15 ·
It is mostly important around spawning, as hard water makes the eggs impenetrable to sperm. You don't need to go crazy, just try and get as close to neutral pH without lots of added minerals.
RO water can be mixed in if you have hard water. As I said, only important for the actual egg laying. By the time you return the adult fish to their tank, you just leave things. Some tetra fry are really just north of microscopic, and clear as glass.
Just leave that tank alone and have a look once in a while with a light from the opposite side of the tank over the next month, just flick the spawn carpet around to scare some fry out. The eggs and larvae are also light sensitive, no need to go blackout on them, but don't put a light on the eggs and young fry.It is OK to add snails after a week or so to eat detritus from the moss and create micro foods for the larvae.
 
#18 ·
If you design the tank with a sump then you could regularly pull out java moss or other materials to throw into the sump. And if it has eggs on it then those could hatch and grow there free of predation. A lot of reef tanks are run with the sump used as this kind of a refugium.

If you wanted to do rainbowfish then those tend to spawn quite a lot and deposit eggs onto the roots of floating plants which you could regularly toss into the sump.
 
#22 ·
I was indeed planning to set up a sump with a refugium so that is an excellent plan. In terms of fish, I would really like to get one or two species that school well, and I was thinking that a 250 gallon tank would provide plenty of room for a impressively sized tetra school (e.g. 100 individuals) and a pygmy cory swarm to complement. I am hoping to create a setting that allows the fish to behave as natural as possible and have always been attracted to setups with relatively low bioload and species diversity!
 
#24 ·
Yes, that is why I don't find it much of a challenge to breed live bearers. I am looking for a new challenge and breeding out a nice tetra and pygmy cory school would fit that very well. More importantly, from my own experience with live bearers I am not convinced about their schooling capacity which will be my main aim in the tank!
 
#25 ·
They require quite a bit of tank space, its hard to do a healthy setup with large numbers of them in a average size tank, and growing fry out among them takes ages due to nitrates and hormones released by larger fish.
If you hit a wall with one species try another, glowlight tetras are about as easy to breed as danios... (you can far outbreed livebearers).
 
#26 ·
X-ray Tetras are one of the only tetra species known to occur in low end Brackish conditions, so they must be pretty tolerant of hard alkaline conditions.
Does anyone know if they breed in this water or return upstream to spawn in the more acidic freshwater?

My point being that if they have adapted to spawn in brackish conditions chances are they will not need the water to be adjusted to spawn.
 
#28 ·
Yeah I did a lot of research on brackish aquariums, I've wanted to set one up for the longest time.
But the fish I like (scats) would outgrow my 120 so I looked at smaller alternatives throughout the range of salinity.
I believe X-ray can go to about 0.003 SG the level at which some hardy plants will still grow (albeit with less vigor)
 
#29 ·
Funny enough I read that breeding X-Ray does require a lower PH (the source mentioned 5.5-6.5) which would mean that my standard tap water (PH=7) might not work for that. More importantly, do you have experience with the schooling/swimming behavior of X-Rays? I would really like to use a tetra in my scape that schools relatively well in schools of 25 or more and should have the size in a 250 gallon to stimulate that.
 
#30 ·
Look at Silver Monos, Monodactylus argenteus, as a good alternative. A 120 is enough for 6 or 7.

There is a goldilocks range from a bit below 7 to a tiny bit above, in which most tetras well be just fine.
A pH of 5.5 is more something some fish can survive, than something they look forward to.
The stuff the dentist use to etch your teeth for fillings has a pH of 5.
 
#31 ·
Nordic, My 120 is only 4x2x2 not the 6ft long thinner shorter 125. I was under the impression that monos grow just as large as scats and both were recommended in 6ft long set ups.

Ramon, I have no experience personally with xray tetras. They seem quite similar in behavior to lemon tetras and those guys will shoal really well.
Blood fins also shoal very well as do rummynose. My black neons seem to hang in loose congregations i my 75. Flow has quite a lot to do with it too I think.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top