# Lemon tetra breeding experiment - July 28 - End of this story



## crazy72

These guys are about one week old. Still tiny, tiny. There are probably about 15 or 20 of them in this 10G breeder. This is the most I've been able to move into there and keep alive for a week. We'll see if they make it. Fingers crossed.

Click on the pic to watch the video.



Meanwhile, in the same room, the parents continue to produce hundreds of eggs every week...


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## jobber

That is some exciting news. So that's what you've been up to 

What are you feeding the fries?

Sent from my Samsung mobile using Tapatalk


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## crazy72

jobber604 said:


> That is some exciting news. So that's what you've been up to
> 
> What are you feeding the fries?
> 
> Sent from my Samsung mobile using Tapatalk


This, yes, and a few other things. 

I don't feed them anything for the first week or so. I just started to drop a tiny amount of Hikari First Bites. I don't even know if they take it. And I don't want to foul the water. It's a trial and error process. With lots of errors.


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## tony1928

That's great news Franck! I've never seen anyone breed tetras before, this should be a fun project!


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## crazy72

tony1928 said:


> That's great news Franck! I've never seen anyone breed tetras before, this should be a fun project!


Thanks, Tony. Yes, I'm pretty excited about it. I have to say that it's a little challenging so far, and I'm not convinced it'll be successful. But I'm learning as I go and yes, it's a lot of fun.


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## CRS Fan

Very cool Franck . Are you just letting them feed off of aufwuchs? I guess the bubbling would just drive me nuts . 

Best regards,

Stuart


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## 2wheelsx2

Throw lots of moss in there. They can eat the micro-organisms in the beginning. Must be Spring. My 2 pairs of discus are spawning non-stop too. Got several hundreds eggs in the cube. None of them make it past wrigglers as there is too much current and too many sneaky tetras and plecos in there.


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## crazy72

CRS Fan said:


> Very cool Franck . Are you just letting them feed off of aufwuchs? I guess the bubbling would just drive me nuts .
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Stuart


Thanks Stuart. Yes, mostly. But I probably don't have enough moss in there. On the other hand, the problem with adding lots of moss is that I don't see the little devils any more, so I can't check on them. Having them in the open as in the vid is very unusual. They hide most of the time. Still, this is likely what I'll do if this batch doesn't make it. And regarding the noise, the tank is in my home office where I work a couple of days a week, so I have other things to drive me nuts in there anyway. :bigsmile:



2wheelsx2 said:


> Throw lots of moss in there. They can eat the micro-organisms in the beginning. Must be Spring. My 2 pairs of discus are spawning non-stop too. Got several hundreds eggs in the cube. None of them make it past wrigglers as there is too much current and too many sneaky tetras and plecos in there.


Thanks Gary. Yes. See the above reply about adding moss. And as I wrote before, it's a trial and error process. Hopefully I'll get it right, one step at a time. The good thing is, the parents are providing me with lots of trial material.


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## 2wheelsx2

crazy72 said:


> Yes. See the above reply about adding moss. And as I wrote before, it's a trial and error process. Hopefully I'll get it right, one step at a time. The good thing is, the parents are providing me with lots of trial material.


Yes, that's the cool part about breeding fish at home. Things to learn for you and the kids. I bet the kids are all over that tank!


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## crazy72

2wheelsx2 said:


> Yes, that's the cool part about breeding fish at home. Things to learn for you and the kids. I bet the kids are all over that tank!


Actually the fry are too small and hide too often to be really interesting for the kids at the moment. They are not patient enough, little devils. But they were excited when I showed them the video! :bigsmile:


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## crazy72

One week later, and I don't know how many of the little guys are still around. Fewer, I think, but it's not easy to tell because they become better at hiding as they grow bigger and become better swimmers. But at least handfull are still alive for sure. And.... I had a big surprise a couple of days ago. While checking up on the little guys, I suddenly saw... a big guy! Huge! A monster! At least ... 3mm in length! :bigsmile:

This one must be from the first batch that I tried to move into the breeder. He must be about 4 weeks old. He seems to come out when I drop a bit of food in there. It was the case when I took this vid here, which is why the filter is off and you can hear my 6 year old's piano prowess. 

It does give me a bit of hope that some of them might make it to adulthood though. That would be pretty cool.

Click on the pic to see the vid.


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## Diztrbd1

Congrats and hoping for the best for you Franck. I don't see much threads on any tetra's breeding so it is a pleasant surprise to see.


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## crazy72

Diztrbd1 said:


> Congrats and hoping for the best for you Franck. I don't see much threads on any tetra's breeding so it is a pleasant surprise to see.


Thanks John. Yes, it doesn't seem to be all that common. It's hard to find good info on the net actually. Besides the usual empty statements that everyone plagiarizes from each other.


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## Momobobo

Cool  Can't wait to see some of these in the classified? Were they difficult to spawn or did it just happen randomly ("as nature intended")

Your house sounds like mine, with the little pianist playing in the background daily


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## crazy72

Momobobo said:


> Cool  Can't wait to see some of these in the classified? Were they difficult to spawn or did it just happen randomly ("as nature intended")
> 
> Your house sounds like mine, with the little pianist playing in the background daily


Thanks. I wouldn't hold my breath about the classifieds though. 

Anything that happens in my tanks happens randomly. Which is perhaps why not much happens in my tanks.


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## jobber

Franck. That is too cool. If you're able to video record that fry, it's not small and it looks very healthy. Look forward to seeing the little gals and guys grow up and added to the nice school you have. Still amazes me it's been capture on camera. Should put the video up on youtube and monetarize it ;D.


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## crazy72

jobber604 said:


> Franck. That is too cool. If you're able to video record that fry, it's not small and it looks very healthy. Look forward to seeing the little gals and guys grow up and added to the nice school you have. Still amazes me it's been capture on camera. Should put the video up on youtube and monetarize it ;D.


You set it up and rack in 10% of the benefits.


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## Chappy

Considering how prolific your krib pair were and still are, I can only imagine how many spawnings you're going to have :bigsmile:
Congrats, Franck. That's pretty cool.
Shelley


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## crazy72

Thanks Shelley. The parents actually seem to be producing eggs continually. Pretty much every time I look I see new ones.

Yes, it is pretty cool isn't it. Mind you, it has to be to even start to justify the racket in my home office. :bigsmile:


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## crazy72

Ok. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news first: there's a second 3mm monster in there. I've seen them both at the same time so I know it's not just one. They actually start looking like little tetras now. I can distinguish the caudal fin, for instance, high and triangular like the parents. That's great progress. 

The bad news? Well, the smaller guys are nowhere to be seen. There's an almond leaf in there, that so far I could just lift when I wanted to check up on them, and I'd see at least a handfull dashing around from under the leaf. Well, no more. They might be hiding elsewhere, but I never see them swim around either. So I'm starting to think that the 2 big guys are all that's left. Mind you, I think I'd settle for 2 survivors if they make it to adulthood. And then I can try and improve my approach so that perhaps next time I can save more.

I have the feeling that the racket in that room is here to stay...


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## crazy72

It's Wednesday. Update day! 

Here's a vid taken tonight of one of the big guys. This one is about 4mm in length. He has this huge belly and I don't know if it's normal or not. The other big one doesn't have such a big belly. Mind you, I haven't seen the second big one for a few days, so I don't even know that he's alive. As to the little ones, same thing, no news.

I reseeded the tank with a new batch of wrigglers yesterday. At least 15 of them. They are so tiny that it's possible they get eaten by Mr 4mm. That would explain the big belly. :bigsmile:

Click on the image to see the vid. Sorry for the floating debris, that was just after a w/c and I don't siphon out the debris in there by fear of siphoning out some fry with it.


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## jobber

That's not fry size anymore, it's juvenile size ;D
Very successful of you to have raised it that size.


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## crazy72

Thanks Ming. Of course I'd prefer to have a dozen of these guys in there, but for a first shot I will settle for this. Now the trick is to figure out how I can increase the survival rate for the next batch(es).


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## 2wheelsx2

I'd take some airline tubing and suck out that debris in the tank, otherwise you may start to see the water quality degrade over time. I bet that big guy is picking the food off the bottom and yes, picking off a few of the smallest ones.


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## crazy72

2wheelsx2 said:


> I'd take some airline tubing and suck out that debris in the tank, otherwise you may start to see the water quality degrade over time. I bet that big guy is picking the food off the bottom and yes, picking off a few of the smallest ones.


Airline tubing is a great idea. I use a larger diameter hose for the w/c in all my tanks, so the water flow is too strong for these little guys. But yes, it should work with airline tubing. Thanks Gary. You da man.


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## crazy72

I added a big clump of moss and I seeded again with a new batch of wrigglers. Hopefully a few more will make it hiding in the moss. As to the "big" guys, the biggest one is now about 6 weeks old and about 7 or 8mm in length. His anal fin now shows a nice yellow colouration. I feed him freeze dried black worms cut into very small pieces. This guy will almost certainly make it now. There are another 2 that are about 4 or 5mm in length. These two are still pretty shy so I don't see them much.

On with the vid. I was just feeding FDBW. Click on the link to see the vid.


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## jobber

Amazing video Franck. The one in the video is about the same size as the ones we picked up from Pat back in December. This guy looks very healthy. Must be exhilarating to be able to breed a tetra and successfully raising the fries. Look forward to seeing updates on more little ones ;D


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## crazy72

Thanks Ming. Yes, I'm enjoying this a lot. It'll likely be my last breeding project for a while since I've decided to shut down the 48G and breeder and sell the group when the fry are big enough, so I'm making the most of it.


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## crazy72

All 3 little guys from the last update have made it. The biggest one is about 2 months old now, and nearly 1cm in length. I'm waiting for the other 2 to get to that length and I'll sell them together with the parents. This has been a lot of fun but it's time for me to downsize. I'll finally sell the 48G to keep only the Limited Edition as my single tank. And this time I mean it. 

On with the vid.


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## 2wheelsx2

Wow, that big guy is going to start turning yellow soon. Good job Franck.


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## crazy72

One last update to this thread, with a few pics of the 3 little guys looking decidedly like lemon tetras now. I'll shut down the breeder next week and move them to my main tank, which will also be my only tank once I've sold the 48G. The vegetable garden will be happy to hear this. :bigsmile:


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## gsneufeld

Ooooh darn they are pretty, I wish I had the money right now, will you accept $7 and a nice sized Marimo moss ball?


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## crazy72

gsneufeld said:


> Ooooh darn they are pretty, I wish I had the money right now, will you accept $7 and a nice sized Marimo moss ball?


Thanks, but no these 3 are not for sale. I've decided to keep them. The group of parents has been for sale for the last week or so, but it's now on hold until Monday for a member here. If you like lemons, try Pat at Canadian Aquatics. He often has some (although not quite as nice as mine  ).


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## crazy72

I thought I would revive this old thread with some news about these 3 little guys. They are in my main (and only :bigsmile tank, and although there are the only 3 lemons in there, they are starting to show behaviour that looks awfully similar to what their parents did before spawning. I haven't seen eggs being scattered, but then tetra eggs are so tiny that one has to look super carefully to see anything.

Anyway, here's a pic. They are now about 10 months old. Fully grown.


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## jobber

This is quite the success story that you were able to successfully breed the lemons ajd subsequently raising the the fries to maturity. Now seems like another generation will soon arrive. No wonder no more free lemons. You breeding you're own!

Congratulations!


Sent from my mobile phone


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