Spawning black skirt tetra fish is actually quite challenging. Here are some suggestions for how to do it.
Another interesting thing when you take care of black skirt tetra fish in your aquarium tank is breeding time. Unlike setting up the tank, choosing their tank mates, or feeding them, spawning black skirt tetra fish is quite a work, it takes not only courage but also elaborative care and patience.
To help you make a better go-through, this article gathers the essential steps from the get-go to the after-spawning process. Let’s take a look!
Spawning Black Tetra Fish Phases
Preparation
You can start the whole process by identifying the future bride and groom and preparing a separate room for them to breed. Petticoat fish need different tanks to breed since they are pretty ‘timid’ and feel comfortable doing it without any companion around.
So, make sure to prepare a 10-gallon tank with similar water parameters according to the primary tank. The Aquarium Guide has suggested setting the temperature a bit warmer than the original tank.
At the bottom of the tank, put some mesh, it can be Java Moss, net, raised plastic grate, grass-like mat, spawning mop, or glass marbles. These ‘accessories’ are used to separate the future parent of black skirt tetra fish from the eggs and fry. It is dangerous to let them get together after spawning since the mature fish would usually eat their eggs and/or fry after spawning.
To identify a bonded pair, you need to examine the shape of their bodies. The female black skirt tetra has a plump and short body while the male version is long and skinny. Their color is also different, note that the female has deeper color. The male usually has white dots in their fins.
Besides, the female carries the eggs in their abdomen part and it will look like a bag-pocket when it is full of eggs, meaning ready for the breeding process.
Place the pair separately from their gang and each other for about seven to ten days before the breeding process.
Help the bonded pair get ready by feeding them three times a day of high-quality food containing live fish food and high-protein menus.
Spawn
When all the checklists for the preparation are struck, you can continue with the actual breeding or spawning black skirt tetra fish steps. Begin this phase by introducing the pair to each other, this is the time when you need to carefully pay attention to their behavior.
There are chances that the female rejects the male candidate, or else the male acts overtly aggressively toward the female. The last one mentioned could cause stress and in that case, you should separate them once again.
If the introduction goes smoothly, the eggs will be fertilized. They could produce up to 1000 eggs and lay those sporadically all over the tank.
Egg Hatch
Not all of the eggs will hatch. The unfertilized one might catch fungi which also can attack the fertilized, ready-to-grow eggs, so be prepared as well to remove them from the tank.
The healthy eggs will hatch in a quite short duration, from 24 up to 36 hours. The fry will normally cling to aquarium decoration if any, and the wall as well. At this stage, they eat from the egg sac. A few days afterward, you may feed them with vinegar eels, liquid fry food, micro worms, or newly hatched brine shrimp. At the age of one month, you can start feeding them the food for mature fish.
If you want to take the challenge, do not skip any of these above steps for spawning black skirt tetra fish by yourself!
1. https://funfishtank.com/black-skirt-tetra/#Common_Diseases
2. https://www.fishlaboratory.com/fish/black-skirt-tetra/
3. https://www.aquariumsource.com/black-skirt-tetra/#:~:text=Black%20Skirt%20Tetras%20are%20also,over%2Dthe%2Dcounter%20medications
4. https://www.aquaticcommunity.com/tetrafish/blackskirttetra.php#:~:text=Breeding%20Black%20skirt%20Tetras,-Getting%20Black%20skirt&text=To%20get%20them%20to%20spawn,(the%20lower%20the%20better).
5. https://theaquariumguide.com/articles/black-skirt-tetra#Black_Skirt_Tetra_Breeding_Level_-_Intermediate