Hemigrammus Erythrozonus Spawning Journal

Putting this project together over the last while, been preparing it. Going to be documenting my process here, for my own future reference and for others who may be interested. No telling at this point of posting if the end result will be successful, as anything can happen with fry before reaching large enough size to move into a community setup.

Anywhere, I've been prepping for about 1.5 months now to get even to this point.

Species:
Hemigrammus erythrozonus (glowlight tetra)

Supplies:
Distilled water
Empty jugs
Reptile grade coconut fiber brick
Oak leaves/sticks
Water Lettuce
Sußwassertang
Air Pump
Heater
Digital Thermometer
Sponge filter w/cycled media
Vinegar eels
Artemia and hatching jar
Drip acclimating tubing and container to transfer fish
Breeder net for later
Small aquarium (I am using a 2.5 gallon as that is what I have on hand currently, for the early days I prefer to keep newborn fry in small enclosures to keep them closest to food sources, upgrading as they outgrow it)




I acquired a group of 8 adults, already at mature size upon purchase. For the first month of owning them, they have been treated with fenbendozole laced food to deworm them as a precaution. They have done well with this and have been in fantastic shape.

A male from the main group:


A female from the main group:


They're suitable for my tap water (pH 7, GH 5°, KH 3°) and they'd have likely spawned just fine in my tap, however, I wanted to aim for the best hatch rate possible for this species, so I set up their spawning tank to reflect that.

I used pure distilled water from the grocery store to have negligible GH and KH. To lower the pH. The pH is unreadable off of my API master test kit unfortunately so cannot give an exact number, though is below 6.
Added some of the coconut fiber brick to the spawning tank as substrate to lower the pH, causing a very dark tannins release.


In separate jugs of distilled water, I also added coconut fiber to them to reduce the pH on those for the same water parameters to prepare for water changes once fry are involved.

Added oak leaves and sticks as shelter and infusoria source.

Put in filter and heater. Monitored temperature to ensure it was where I needed it.

I let this sit for the entire time I had the adults. Letting this sit has enabled the water to mature better and the organic materials to grow a sustainable infusoria population as a first food for the fry.



The day of moving a conditioned pair of adults over, I added Sußwassertang and water lettuce to use as spawning mops.

To move the adults, I netted out the fattest female and a male from the community tank and put them in a bowl with a bit of the water from the community. I then slowly drip acclimated them for an hour before moving them into the spawning tank. I moved them over during the afternoon of October 19th 2024.


The adult pair was left in peace to adjust to their temporary vacation, though with how dark the water is, they are difficult to observe.




The following morning, the day I am currently starting this journal, there were eggs observed among the roots of the water lettuce.


Later this evening, the adults will be removed from the spawning tank and drip acclimated back into the community tank to join the rest of the adults. With luck, in 24-48 hours, I shall observe some fry beginning to hatch. A few days later they should be free swimming.

Following!

I admire that really meticulous approach. That's planning!

Tetra breeding is a bit of a lost art, and I hope it becomes more common. Back in the day, the older aquarists I knew almost all bred tetras, because it was an affordable way to have the large groups these fish look best in. That fell away as fish became cheap and easy to breed Cichlids became popular. Now, the majority of aquarists are surprised when you say you breed your fish - that's no longer a big part of the hobby.

I always liken it to buying cut flowers as opposed to gardening. That's some creative landscaping there.

GaryE said:

I admire that really meticulous approach. That's planning!

Tetra breeding is a bit of a lost art, and I hope it becomes more common. Back in the day, the older aquarists I knew almost all bred tetras, because it was an affordable way to have the large groups these fish look best in. That fell away as fish became cheap and easy to breed Cichlids became popular. Now, the majority of aquarists are surprised when you say you breed your fish - that's no longer a big part of the hobby.

I always liken it to buying cut flowers as opposed to gardening. That's some creative landscaping there.

Click to expand...

I am also a sentimental person, there's always something special about keeping fish you've bred yourself.

I've bred tetras before, though I bred them in my normal tap. I likely could have done these the same, but I wanted to try to see if going for the low pH and GH would increase the hatchrate of the eggs.


Plus, prices of things going up, including fish, it may get cheaper again to breed bigger groups yourself than buying. Glowlights in store here are $5 a fish, and that's a cheap tetra here in this stupid city. Other tetras are like $7-9 a fish. And that's from a chain store.

"Stupid city"


I feel that

Jinx_ said:

"Stupid city"


I feel that

Click to expand...

All of our lfs closed during the pandemic, all we have left is petsmart or local hobbyists if we want to buy new fish without ordering online.

They couldn't keep up with the rising rent prices for their shops while not having enough business due to restrictions that were put in place during the pandemic here.

My city relies heavily on the automotive industry, which suffered lay offs due to parts shortages during the pandemic, so that impacted things even worse.

It'll be nice to be able to offer some home raised tetras to other locals if all goes well from this. I've supplied a lot of cories/brochis, emperor tetras, sparkling gourami, and bristlenose plecos to many in the area here in the past, one lucky person even got a couple hoplosternum punctatum youngsters I raised (not a species really bred in captivity).

I am not a huge fan of where I live, I'm not a city person at heart, but because husband works in the automotive industry, we are stuck here it sucks, but hey I can try to improve things ever so little as far as the fish hobby goes.

CassCats said:

All of our lfs closed during the pandemic, all we have left is petsmart or local hobbyists if we want to buy new fish without ordering online.

They couldn't keep up with the rising rent prices for their shops while not having enough business due to restrictions that were put in place during the pandemic here.

My city relies heavily on the automotive industry, which suffered lay offs due to parts shortages during the pandemic, so that impacted things even worse.

It'll be nice to be able to offer some home raised tetras to other locals if all goes well from this. I've supplied a lot of cories/brochis, emperor tetras, sparkling gourami, and bristlenose plecos to many in the area here in the past, one lucky person even got a couple hoplosternum punctatum youngsters I raised (not a species really bred in captivity).

I am not a huge fan of where I live, I'm not a city person at heart, but because husband works in the automotive industry, we are stuck here it sucks, but hey I can try to improve things ever so little as far as the fish hobby goes.

Click to expand...

Dang that sounds tough! We mainly here in my city got chain stores, which obviously aren't good. Only one private shop I know, literally need to get a taxi to get there and back as there's no parking. Likeable shopping spree for people lol.

I'm hoping to breed my guppies and cherry shrimps for some profit. Only so far I think one lady guppy seems to be pregnant. Cherry shrimps are not approving of my idea.

So the first spawning attempt was a failure. I gave it time to see if anything came of it, blindly fed the tank, but nothing. Sat on it for a bit and even after all this time there's been nothing to it. I've had the lights off since the confirmed spawning due to eggs and young fry being photosensitive, but nothing had been noted whatsoever. No wrigglers, no free swimming, nothing. Just the vinegar eels that I fed to the empty tank swimming around in there lol

So!

I am looking at a couple possibilities, and I am setting it all back up once more to try again. I've got another female among the school who is very nicely gravid who will be the one pulled for the next attempt. You can even see the eggs in her she's so gravid.






Today I drained 80% of the dark water out, which though it still is heavily tannined, that is a major improvement on lighting it up more. I am hoping that perhaps lighter tannin amount will help, perhaps if anything did hatch it was TOO dark to see food to eat and they starved, or perhaps the water was so Acidic even the eggs dissolved, since I wasn't able to get a reading on the pH on the API liquid test chart it was so low. So I am keeping the pH neutral this time around using my usual pH regulator (Seachem Neutral Regulator) to keep things stable. This is what all my fish are kept with (reason being wonky tap water, it's unstable so to limit impact on fish I keep to neutral pH upon water changes).

I did remove some coconut fiber, left about a 3/4" layer in the tank but given I am adjusting the pH, it won't impact chemistry so much.


This IS an improvement on visibility! I can actually see the heater on the back glass now, before it was not visible because the water was so dark. I added some fake plants for spawning mops, just because I had some brand new ones given to me, figure why the heck not.


Going to give it a few days to settle, and perhaps this weekend I shall give spawning another go and hope for better results this round. Sometimes, spawnings are not successful and you just gotta try again.


If next round is unsuccessful, then I will wait a few more months and try in the spring. If these fish were treated in store with medications like malachite green for ich (common place in my area for stores to do so) then it can impact fertility temporarily, so that could very well be a factor in the failure. But, I won't know with just 1 failure.

Don't give up! I know you'll get there eventually

Yesterday (December 1st 2024) I moved the pair over, today I have a tonnnnnn of eggs! Fingers crossed these ones hatch this time.




Parameters are slightly different this round, less tannins (despite still heavy tannin water), pH is set to 7 with a pH regulator, 1° GH, 0°KH. Temperature 79F.

Previous I could not get a reading on the pH on the API test as the water was below the chart on there.

Woohoo!! I hope they hatch!

10 days later, there has been nothing. Very likely another failure. Perhaps I shall give it another try in another 6 months, to rule out medication induced infertility from the store.

Don't give up! There will be a day you will be successful!

I've been going in parallel with you, trying to breed glowlights. I have 3 juveniles from my first try, but my second attempt, which had lots of fry, seems to have crashed out. So I'm zero for two, but have ruled out infertility. I just screwed up somewhere, I think by overfeeding. I will try again, but with a larger tank (a 10 gallon) and a bare glass bottom this time.
Feeding is a big problem, but next time I'll have paramecium and green water. It's timing the period when they are larvae absorbing the egg sac and then freeswimming fish eating what's on offer. It's so hard when you can't shine a light on them.
I have to learn the timings. I'll give myself 15 tries before I give up. I have 50 young Pristellas, so that went well, and I have a tank of cardinal larvae as of yesterday, so I get to try my food ideas again.
Another week or two of conditioning, and then around Christmas, round three. I think a shoal of 30 glowlights in with 50 cardinals would be worth working towards.