Breeding Cardinals

[Gaawie]

Hi all. I'm looking to breed Cardinal Tetras. Has anyone done this before/ have any tips on how to go about it? It's quite difficult, but I look forward to the challenge :bigsmile:. I was thinking of a 70l tank, marbles and fine leaved plants (they are egg scatterers, right?), very soft water, and a shoal of about 15, and hopefully they will get it right on their own? Any tips would be appreciated.

Cheers, Gabriel

[Franna]

I read that its almost impossible to breed tetras . but i wouldn't know.

[Ferryman]

its not impossible. but i think alot depends on right water quality and conditions. soft, acidic etc. good luck man. interresting endevour

[Gaawie]

Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes. Still in the research stage...

[SalmonAfrica]

I started off here: LINK (http://www.google.co.za/)

And I got this: LINK (http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/tetrafish/cardinaltetra.php)

Cardinal Tetra breeding:


Cardinal tetras have been successfully bred in captivity, but breeding them is quite difficult and a majority of the Cardinal tetras sold in pet shops are therefore wild caught from Rio Orinoco and Rio Negro. In the wild, they are however highly prolific and they are not considered threatened in their native region. In this regard the Cardinal tetra differs from the Neon tetra which is a highly prolific species not only in the wild but also in captivity. Wild Cardinal tetras have a natural life span of no more than one year, and they are therefore capable of spawning while still being very young. (When you keep Cardinal tetras in aquariums they can live for several years.)
If you want to try breeding Cardinal tetras you must provide them with ideal water conditions. Switch from flake food to plenty of live food and include fine leaved plants in the aquarium set up. The Cardinal tetra is a non-guarding open water/substratum egg scatterer that will prefer to deposit the eggs among plants. Over 500 eggs can be released in one spawning. The eggs will hatch after 24-30 hours and it will then take an additional 3-4 days before the fry are free-swimming. Really small fry-food is necessary since the miniscule Cardinal tetra fry can not handle large food types.
The fry are very sensitive to poor water conditions and you can expect very high death rates if you do not keep the water quality at supreme levels. Another threat is the adult fish. Since Cardinal tetras are non-guarders, they will not hesitate to eat eggs and fry. If you want to breed Cardinal tetras it can therefore be a good idea to set up a separate fry rearing aquariumThis: LINK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_tetra)

Breeding

The cardinal tetra, in the wild, swims upstream in large numbers to parts of its native river habitat that are completely enclosed above by rainforest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest) canopy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest#Rainforest_Layers). Such waters are subject to heavy shading by the rainforest trees, and virtually no sunlight reaches them. Here, the fishes spawn in large aggregations. In the aquarium, a single pair can be conditioned for breeding, but the breeding aquarium not only needs to contain water with the correct chemical parameters cited above: the breeding aquarium needs to be heavily shaded to mimic the low light conditions of the fish's native spawning grounds. If the fishes are ready to spawn, the male, which will be the slimmer of the two fishes in outline, will pursue the female into fine-leaved plants: her fuller outline, which usually indicates the presence of ripe eggs within her reproductive tract, should be readily apparent at this point. If the female is ready, she will allow the male to swim alongside her, and together, the pair will release eggs and sperm.
Apart from the stringent requirements with respect to water chemistry, one of the major difficulties mitigating against success in captive breeding of the species is the nature of the newly laid and fertilised eggs. The eggs of the cardinal tetra are photosensitive, and will die if exposed to bright light. Consequently, after spawning, the fishes should be removed and the aquarium covered to darken it, thus providing the developing eggs with the conditions necessary for development.
And this: LINK (http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile11.html)

Breeding

Soft water, with 1º - 2ºof hardness, Ph of 5.0 - 6.0 and a water temperature of about 82º f. Use Java moss or a synthetic substitute over the bottom of the tank and reduce the lighting. Cardinals usually spawn at twilight. The male embraces the female when spawning and about 500 eggs are scattered among the Java moss. Remove the parents. The eggs hatch in about 24 hours and the fry are free-swimming in about five days. Feed the young on Infusoria and later on , newly hatched Brine Shrimp. The Cardinal is not easily bred and most specimens are still imported from their native waters.

Good luck. :)

[Vis]

Hi Gaawie

I am no expert but might be able to give some tips due too recent experience and observation. My Neon Tetras are breeding like guppies at the moment but not because I tried.

Ok where to begin: 15 Caridnals 1 tank.

You where right when you said that they scatter their eggs. I think most posts or info about this says that you need fine leafed plants and some marbles but there is a very important thing they do not mention!

The female positions herself as close to the bottom or plant as she can while the male positions himself parallel to her. This is where the trouble comes in at the moment of scattering the eggs they do not stay close to the desired place and the eggs do not go straight down.
The eggs really scatter meaning they have to sink back down into protection. With 13 other tetras and the parents around you would be lucky if one egg even make it to the cover.

So you either need to plant that tank so dense that you cant see the tetras yourself or you would have to remove a carrying female and 2 males too another tank.

I say two males because the female does not take any male but they kind of fight for the privilage and the female will move away with the winner. Do not know what wil happen if she had only one male to choose from.

I would also take a few pebbles and cover them with moss to go with the marbles. Mine seem to prefer the moss. Maybe because it can create quite a dense growth?

Do not know why mine started breeding so hectic but will tell you what happened before hand.

I keep my water at 24C because the moss do not like temps over 25C. When I turn my lights on the water temp rise with 1C. So during the day my water is 25C and at night 24C.

I noticed that the tetras got ich so dosed Anti Ich and raised the temp to 27C during the day and 26C at night.
Now three days later all the females seem to carry eggs and the males are all fighting, especially in the morning.

My PH is about neutral. Cant tell you the other parameters as I do not have something to test them with at the moment.

My eggs will never survive as I have 15 tetras,14 Rasbora Galaxy, 3 pygmy corrys and 5 other microrasbora in the tank. Would be easier to take them to wimpy and order the eggs sunnyside up:p

One last thing, I am not sure how you can age tetras or at what age they become sexually mature but mine are about 2,5 - 3cm big.
So I think if you get cardinals get tham as big as you can.

Hope this might help you to do it succesfull.

[Dirk Bellstedt]

Hi Guys,

In the nineteen sixties, Mr Georg Reinhardt, my fish mentor, bred numerous batches of cardinals at Jonkershoek fisheries, part of Cape Nature Conservation, which at that stage still had a tropical fish section. If they would have continued with that section they may still have been on the map, but they decided to close the tropical fish section and continue with trout and black bass breeding. Cape Nature nowadays is spending a large amount of there money trying to eradicate trout and black bass because they have just about decimated every indigenous fish that we have...... but this is off topic.

Breeding cardinals is not just as easy as putting 15 cardinals into a tank, Vis, it is a lot more complex, and if the fishes are laying eggs that still does not mean that they are breeding. Breeding means that fry will hatch and can be raised.

Cardinals need extremely soft and highly acidic water (pH 4.0 - 4.5) in order to breed and for the eggs to hatch successfully. You can use RO directly in this single instance (not so for breeding discus please!). You need to prepare a small tank of about 40 x 30 x 30 cm. Use no gravel, add some coconut fibre (which is an excellent spawning medium for most tetras BTW) from a nursery, and put in an airstone. No plants should be added whatsoever as this will cause the eggs to rot. Temp must be 26 C, no more and no less. Too high temps and the eggs rot, too low temps and the fish won't spawn. The tank must be absolutely spotless, in other words not even the smallest fluffy on the glass or anywhere else or the eggs will rot. Filtering with peat beforehand would help. The tank must be about half full. You must choose a single pair to put into the tank. Vis, you have observed that the males fight over the females which is correct. Female cardinals prefer to spawn with one male only which is something that only cardinals do amongst the tetras. So, you need to observe beforehand which fish will form a pair and use only these confirmed pairs. Condition them with good food including freshly hatched bs. The fishes should not be fed in the spawning tank as the eggs will rot.

Then check your calendar. Cardinals spawn at night when you have a full moon and the tank should be positioned so that the light of the moon shines on the tank. Put the fishes into the tank on the morning before the evening that they should spawn. Inspect the tank the next morning with a weak torch to see if you can see eggs. Remove the parents after this. Cover the tank with newspaper as the eggs are light sensitive, very important! In nature cardinals occur in small streams in the jungle which receive very little light and the eggs drop between leaves so that they are in the dark.

Once the eggs hatch you must wait another 48 hours at least before they become free swimming. You must then feed infusoria or microencapsulated foods in tiny amounts. Feed too much and they rot and die. After about a week they will be large enough to take freshly hatched bs and very fine foods. After that raising is easy on good fine foods including a constant amount of freshly hatched bs.

You would see that much of what I have described here is in agreement with the last link posted by SalmonAfrica, however, spawns are about 50 maximum in number and I wonder if the figure of 500 is not a typo.

As you can see this requires a lot of careful attention to detail as a result of which most cardinals are caught in the wild. Neons are much more easy to breed as a result of which they are bred by the thousands in Singapore. For breeding Neons the temps must be much lower, 21 C, and the water does not need to be so soft.

Kind regards,

Dirk

[Vis]

Thanks Prof, will remember that breeding include fry. Funny how half a red stripe make cardinals and neons tottaly
Different fish :). Find the moon bit very interesting. The dark cover is maybe the only thing ensuring safety of the eggs.

[Gaawie]

Thanks everyone for the input! I will keep you posted as to how it's going. I will probably start in the holidays (that's the 27th of this month) as that's when my holiday starts...

Prof., you say I need to use RO water. Where can I get some...? I don't have unit myself...:eek:

[Go-Big]

Gaawie. Just searching cardinal on the forum. Have you ever attempted this endevour??

[mydummyname]

that was some very very interesting reading there...

very informative.