Tetras

[Betta splendens]

A couple of my neons have swelled bellies. Also on the bottom of the bellies there are many colored spots, like the greenish blue shiny colored. So are they pregnant females? How do they lay their eggs (burriers, egg scatterers, ect) and what do they look like?

Thanks a bunch

Betta splendens

 

[Lateral Line]

Neons, like all tetras, are egglayers, so they are not pregnant. They are egg scatterers and show no parental care, indeed, they will eat their own eggs readily. It is the normal state for female tetras to be deeper in the belly than males. In clean conditions, they will scatter eggs, which are externally fertilised by the attendent male.

Any eggs that escape predation are unlikely to hatch. To hatch neons, and most blackwater fish, you need to have water of pratically zero hardness. Calcium dissolved in the water reacts with the egg shells making them to tough for the fry to break out. Water that soft is very unstable and can swing wildly in pH over very short periods.