African Long Finned Tetra Spawning Behaviour

[raylove]

My African Long Finned Tetras (Alestes Tetra) were spawning again today. I tried to capture it on film - difficult because I had to do it from a distance with the camera on maximum zoom to avoid disturbing them! Video uploaded to YouTube with link below as none of the formats available to me appeared to be supported for a direct upload to TFF.

As always, it is difficult to spot the eggs, particularly on camera, but it is the activity of the other fish following them and eating the eggs that show what is going on. It is mainly the Pygmy Chain Loach and the Denisoni (Red Line Torpedo) Barbs that go mad for it, presumably because they have the smallest mouths. Hope you find this entertaining too!

You might just catch a glimpse of my one remaining Red Scissortail which is over 10 years old and more than 6 inches in length. My original group of 4 looked fantastic and I always wished I had bought more, but in the last 10 years I have never again seen them for sale.

The Denisoni Barbs are about 4 years old, I think, but there is one other in the tank that is the last remaining one from a batch that I bought over 15 years ago. After I bought those I noticed that one had an eye problem and was clearly blind in one eye. He subsequently lost that eye but he went on to become the largest of the group., and he's the one I still have. He has looked to be on his last legs for about a year now - I even moved the tank 3 months ago and I really didn't think he would survive the stress of being rehoused, but still he keeps on going!

https/youtu.be/xsefEuKLYOg

 

[Stan510]

Congrats on all of it..spawning and getting fish to ripe old ages. I can't recall ever seeing any Tetra I have kept spawning. Everything else known to spawn,but for reason not Tetra's.
I did see that old Roseline/Denison hanging near the surface. 15 years!..I have two that I bought small and at 1.6 years old are about 4". A third died even after it seemed to recover from some bacterial infection.
Scissortail? I did see what looked like a Garra or a loach.

 

[Colin_T]

Congrats on all of it..spawning and getting fish to ripe old ages. I can't recall ever seeing any Tetra I have kept spawning. Everything else known to spawn,but for reason not Tetra's.

The pH and GH of your water might be too high for the tetras. Most tetras are from soft acid water and won't breed if the pH is well above 7.0 and the GH is above 100ppm.

 

[raylove]

Congrats on all of it..spawning and getting fish to ripe old ages. I can't recall ever seeing any Tetra I have kept spawning. Everything else known to spawn,but for reason not Tetra's.
I did see that old Roseline/Denison hanging near the surface. 15 years!..I have two that I bought small and at 1.6 years old are about 4". A third died even after it seemed to recover from some bacterial infection.
Scissortail? I did see what looked like a Garra or a loach.

I have no Garra or loaches other than the Pygmy Chain Loaches, I think what you saw was a Siamese Algae Eater.
The fish hanging near the surface is actually the Red Scissortail (they grow much larger than Common Scissortails). I didn't think the old Barb appeared at all but in fact part of him comes into shot in the final second at the top of the screen.
These tetras seem to spawn at any time of day but typically I have noticed smaller South American tetras seem to spawn early in the morning, particularly if a little sunlight hits the tank but before the tank lights come on, so it may have happened without you seeing it.