| Cardinal Tetra 
Photo by Andy These fish are very similar to Neon Tetras but they are even more colourful, the red extends the full length of there bodies. Although they require a similar breeding set up to Neon Tetras these fish are much more difficult to breed, and are not bred on a large commercial scale because of the difficulties. It is more cost effective to import wild caught fish. They come from Rio Vaupes, Negro, and Orinoco all in S America they inhabit slow or still water. They are always peaceful and are excellent community fish with fish of a similar size, they reach 2 inches under good conditions, but they dislike bright lighting, These fish are found only in very soft water so they must be maintained this way, exposure to hard water will damage their kidneys and result in premature death. They will thrive on a diet of flake food and live or frozen food. The sexes are easily told apart because the females are much plumper than the males. Abreeding tank should be set up with either spawning mops or with fine leaved plants. The tank needs to be a little larger (24 x 12 x 12) than the one used for Neon Tetras because the brood size is commonly 4 times larger than the Neons. The temperature only needs to be set at around 76 F but the water shold be very soft GH 1 or 2 and the pH should be 6 to 6.5 The parents should be conditioned with live food until they are ripe then they should be placed in the spawning tank in the evening. It is important that the tank has no artificial lighting and is kept well shaded. The pair should spawn within a couple of days, if not remove them and try again after a couple of weeks. Sometimes the early morning sun will stimulate the spawning. Once spawning has happened the pearents should be removed in order to prevent them from eating their own eggs. The eggs should be protected against the light because they are photo sensitive and light will kill the eggs. It is a good idea to place covers around the back and sides of the tank to keep the light levels down. The eggs take about 24 hours to hatch and the fry will be free swimming a futher 4 or 5 days later. The fry are still light sensitive and very sensitive to changing water conditions so it is esential that the tank is kept in very subdued lighting and kept very stable. The fry should be fed on either Infusoria or liquid fry food and move on to newly hatched brineshrimps after about one week after free swimming, then slowly introduce some powdered flake food into the diet. A mature sponge filter should also be introduced at this stage to make certain that there will be no Ammonia or Nitrite after 3 weeks begin making very small water changes using the same soft acidic water to replace water that has been removed. After 8 weeks start to add a little bit of slightly harder water to accustom the fry to more normal conditions that they are likely to meet in the outside world, but do it gradually. At the age of 10 to 12 weeks the fry should be big enough to sell. It sounds easy, but rearing such small sensitive fry requires experience. These fish will spawn quite easily but rearing the fry is extremely difficult. There is no point in producing several hundred fry only to have them all die through lack of experience on your part. Black widow Tetras or Glowlight Tetras are far more suitable for a first Tetra to breed and will give you valuable experience. Back to Species Selection | 
