Spawning of Nematobrycon palmeri
The Emperor Tetra
by Larry Jinks
First published in Shoreline, Jersey Shore Aquarium Society, March 2004
Aquarticles
I received six emperor tetras in a trade with long-time BAP member Jim Sorge. Since
pencil fish and Apistos had previously spawned in my water, I did not think there would be
any problem with these tetras. I set them up in a twenty gallon long tank with a bare
bottom and a generous helping of Java moss, which is a great spawning medium for egg
scatterers as it provides cover for eggs and fry without requiring high light intensity.
After several months of conditioning with flake, pellet, live baby brine, and black
worms, I thought they would be ready to spawn. I was wrong. I asked around the fish clubs
among people who had spawned emperors and it seemed that I was doing everything right. I
acquired an additional half dozen of these tetras from Dean Majorino and added them to the
colony, thinking that maybe I did not have males and females. The emperor tetras are
sexually dimorphic with the older males developing central elongated filaments of the
caudal fin.
After several more months of conditioning, still no results. I forgot about spawning
these fish and neglected them all summer, feeding flake every other day and not much live
food. In early September, after trips to the ACA Convention and camping, I decided to get
the fish room in shape before going back to school. While doing water changes and cleaning
filters, I moved the Java moss around in the emperors' tank and spotted several quarter to
half inch fry. Careful observation over the next few days revealed many more fry. I added
live baby brine to the feeding regimen, now daily, and the fry responded with rapid
growth. I brought the tetras into a Jersey Shore meeting for BAP points in November, 2002.
Subsequent discussion with NJAS veteran breeder Hank Voss revealed that emperor tetras
are gang spawners. When you attempt to set up emperor tetras for spawning, my experience
says to set up a colony of six to twelve individuals with Java moss as a spawning medium,
feed a variety of prepared and live foods to increase protein in the diet for increased
egg production, and let them do their thing. The fry do not seem to be bothered by the
well-fed adults, although I would imagine some do get picked off. Emperor tetras are a
nice medium-sized tetra to work with and I highly recommend trying them.
|