Neon Tetra Spawning??

[maoripho3nix]

Hey all,

Im not all too familiar with fish breeding/spawning etc. But I think one of my Neons may be doing so. I assume its a female,almost has a 'pot belly' compared to others (and apart from that the fact that females lay eggs :roll: ), it keeps guarding a corner of the tank and every now and then dives under and around the glosso/hairgrass/fern in that area, it is there for a while unless another tetra comes into territory, and in the case, zips out to push them back.

If it is a female and it is spawning, then their eggs must be tiny or hard to see (or it might be my eyes), or its not having enough time to sit and lay the eggs before its territory is interrupted?

So the questions....

is it a female spawning?

if it is, where are the eggs? or what do I look for?

Do I leave the eggs alone?

There are 5 other Neons in the tank and a couple of them take interest in what this neon is doing and are trying to make it into the area. The 3 Otos are not doing anything :lol:

Pic of the fish in question

Not much of a view in the video, but it shows what the Neon is doing and then it darts off to guard the area.

Any help would be great. Thank You

[Zev]

Looks like a female.

Neons spawn by sidling up to eachother in plants or moss with their noses pointing up and doing a shimmy dance!

They are nasty predators on their own eggs and fry and may eat eggs immediately after laying them.

The eggs are about 1.5mm in size, transparent and scattered on the bottom and are allegedly photo sensitive.

The most common way of trying to preserve the eggs is to set up (another ) tank with a fine netting across the whole bottom of the tank, the eggs fall through and stops the fish from getting to the eggs, after laying you remove the fish and netting.

[BikBok]

are neons hard to keep?

I suppose a shark would eat them .

[Luke*]

yep that's a fem

[Bilbo]

Neons can be pretty tough to breed on purpose but quite a few people accidentaly do it. One day you will see 1 more than you knew you had or spot a blue flash darting off into some plants.

Apart from size and shape you can tell sexes because the males have a tiny hook on the tip of the anal fin and can get stuck on fine nets if you are catching them.