Congo Tetra

photo by Andy

This is a large (for a Tetra) fish with the Males growing over 3.5 inches and the females slightly smaller. They take a long time to reach full maturity.

It comes from Africa and like most Tetras they prefer to be kept in a shoal. Their aquarium care presents no real problems but they must have a large tank and clean water that is soft and acidic.

Water that has been filtered through peat will have all the right qualities that this species requires. They are not too fussy about their food and will accept flake, freeze dried, frozen and live food.

To breed these fish you will need to provide a tank no smaller than 24" x 12" x 12" and two males for every female. The fish should be fully adult and about 18 months old. The tank should be set up with lots of fine leafed plants in pots. A mature sponge filter but no gravel the bottom should be left bare. The water should be pH 6.5 and very soft no more than GH4. There should be no artificial lighting and no direct light on the tank, because Tetra eggs and fry are light sensitive although in this case they aren’t as delicate as Neons or Cardinals. The males and females should be separated and conditioned with lots of live food and freeze-dried Tubifex for about 5 to 7 days at a temp of 77f. Then they should be placed in the breeding tank, females first. There will then be a lot of displaying from the males and then some chasing; this is when the eggs will be laid. The eggs are quite large and non-adhesive they will just be scattered every where.

Once spawning is over the adults should be removed or they will eat the eggs, but allow them to recuperate before this.

At 77f the eggs take 6 or 7 days to hatch and a further 3 or 4 days before the fry are free swimming. The fry are quite large and can eat newly hatched Brine Shrimps right away which makes them far easier to raise than some of the really tiny Tetra fry. You could even use a commercial powdered fry food but better growth rates will be achieved if you use Brine Shrimps initially.

Because these are quite large fish, each well-conditioned female can produce up to 300 eggs so don’t use to many unless you have lots of space for growing on.

For the first week after free swimming you should feed the fry 3 or 4 times per day on rinsed Brine Shrimp, there is no need to change any water at this stage. The second week add some finely powdered fry food into the diet and change just a jam jar full of water twice per day making sure that the new water is the same temp and pH as the old water. By the third week the fry can be fed on crushed flake and Brine Shrimp and the water changes should be gradually built up to 10% daily. By the forth week the fry will either have to be thinned out (culled) or moved in to larger quarters. Has the fry grow increase the water changes up to 25% daily but no more, this will ensure good growth rates are kept up.

Once the fry reach 1.5 inches they are ready to be sold but it will take a full year before they reach their full potential.