Spawning the Black Neon
Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi
by Bill Loesch
First published in Shoreline, Jersey Shore Aquarium Society, March 2004
Aquarticles
I do not breed fish. For that matter, I do not believe anyone can make that claim. The
best we can do is establish an environment conducive to spawning. With patience, good
feeding habits, and regular water changes, the fish will do the rest.
Setting up an Amazonian tank is easy, culturing live food can be done, but it takes
patience to wait for the fish to mature. I purchased a school of eight young fish and had
them in a community tank for about a year. By the time I felt they were ready to spawn, I
was down to six fish: two females; four males.
I set up a 20 long with marbles on the bottom and a covering of Spanish moss. The ph
was dropped to 6.6 in the 20 long from 6.8 in the community tank. The males chased the
females (as with many egg scatterers) and once the spawning was complete, the adults were
removed.
The eggs are tiny and hatch in a couple of days at 78°F to 80°F. The fry are
free-swimming a couple of days after that and need tiny food, like infusoria, at first.
Oh, by the way, the black neon is not really related to the neon or blue neon. I think
Axelrod just thought it was a cool name!
|