How To Breed Neon Tetras

Neon Tetras are incredibly popular and they’re one of the hardest fish for home aquarists to breed. However, for aquarists looking for a new challenge, this is an incredibly rewarding one. In the wild, Neon Tetras are freshwater fish native to the Amazon region.

For a complete care guide about Neon Tetras, before you try breeding them, look here. The map below shows where Neon Tetras are found in the wild.

Neon Tetra Aquarium Setup

If you’re interested in breeding Neon Tetras, the first step is to setup a dedicated breeding aquarium. You want to replicate the wild, where they breed, as much as possible. You also want plenty of hiding places to protect the Neon Tetra babies from their parents.

We recommend purchasing a 10-gallon aquarium for breeding your Neon Tetras. You can find one at your local fish store for less than $20.

Neon Tetra Water Quality

For your water quality, you need to pay attention to pH and filtration. Filtration is simple, get an air pump and hook it up to a sponge filter. Make sure to cycle your aquarium, and your sponge will be filled with plenty of healthy bacteria.

For water quality you want to regulate hardness and pH. Neon Tetras prefer a pH of ~6 to 6.5, which is easiest to do through filling your aquarium with RO / DI water. You can purchase RO / DI water from ~$1 / gallon or purchase the filters online for $150. By definition, this RO / DI water will come at a pH of roughly 7.

You then need to naturally lower the pH of the water some. The best way to do this is purchase some peat moss online, place it in a nylon filter ack, and then place this in your filter. You can regularly use pH testing strips to verify your pH. You can remove or add some as required. The peat moss might darken your water, but that’s a benefit for replicating the natural environment.

Neon Tetra Lighting

To setup the lighting for your new aquarium, keep in mind that Neon Tetra eggs and fry are sensitive to light.

That means place your breeding aquarium away from lights, and use black paper to cover the sides of the aquarium. Tape the pieces of black paper and then you can remove them later as the fry go up. You do not have to light the aquarium from above, but if you do so, add some plants so that the fry can safely hide should they choose too.

Having plants in the aquarium will help better replicate the natural environment of the Neon Tetras.

Neon Tetra Temperature

Neon Tetra are a tropical fish, meaning that they need a higher temperature than the ambiance in your room, roughly 79 degrees. Slightly lower temperature gives better results, so we recommend buying a quality filter online and using that to maintain the temperature.

Neon Tetra Pairs

To breed your Neon Tetras, you need a school of Neon Tetras in your main aquarium. They need to be 5–6 months old to breed them, since they’re tough to age the easiest way is to purchase some at the store and keep them for a few months. Neon Tetra breeding is difficult and they’re capable for breeding for several years after they become eligible, so have some patience.

Now that you have the school of Neon Tetras, it is now time to pick out a male and female. Neon Tetra are a difficult fish to sex, however, there are two clear distinctions that separates both.

Female Neon Tetras tend to be slightly longer and wider than male Neon Tetras. This is normally difficult to identify because oftentimes this wideness is attributable to the female Neon Tetra carrying eggs which means it is harder to see if the female does not have eggs.

The second thing to look for is coloring, females have a stripe slightly bent towards the bottom, while the male stripe runs straight up the body. You can clearly see the stripe and the width in the pictures above.

Neon Tetra Spawning

Once you identify a par, its time to try and get them to breed and lay eggs. Put them in your breeding aquarium, and then pay attention to the fact that they lay eggs once a month. The first few times they lay noticeably fewer eggs.

Once the Neon Tetra pair has been introduced, they should spawn soon. There are a few tips and tricks you can use to get them to spawn earlier.

You can simulate the seasonal rainfall that Neon Tetras receive in their Amazon habitat with a massive water change of 50%. Doing this with slightly cooler water will be a benefit. You can even, if you have access to water with the same parameters, remove water until only a few inches remain. This will simulate the rivers running low and then seasonal rainfall.

You can also use live food. Live food like mosquito larvae can be collected from your backyard, or bought from a retailer. Its a nutritional food source from the environment that you can use to induce them to breed.

Neon Tetra Eggs

As we discussed above, the breeding aquarium should be covered with black paper to protect them. However, regularly peek into the aquarium to see if you notice any tetra eggs. If you notice Neon Tetra eggs, immediately remove the parents from the aquarium.

Now that you have the eggs, it’s time to move on to raising some Neon Tetra babies! These eggs will take 24 hours to hatch, so you should prepare the hatching food for Neon Tetras.

Neon Tetra Food

Feed your Neon Tetras infusoria immediately after birth. Infusoria are a collective term for different aquatic creates. They’re small and will serve as great food, and the easiest way to get them is to grow them yourself.

Take several old water bottles and cut off the tops. Fill them halfway up with aquarium water, water treated with chlorine and chloramine remover or pure RO/DI water. Place a lettuce leaf and algae wafer in each bottle. Let these bottles sit in heavy sunlight.

After keeping the bottles in bright sunlight, the bottles should begin to become cloudy with bacteria. Soon after, the water should become clearish or pinkish. That’s because the water will grow infusoria which will eat up the bacteria in the aquarium water. The disappearance of this bacteria will remove the cloudiness of the water in the bottles.

Once you have infusoria, you can use a pipette to feed it to your Neon Tetra fry. Cleaning your tank without removing babies will be difficult, so wait until the babies are slightly larger. As a result just barely feed the fry, a few drops at a time several times a day. Keep close attention to make sure the aquarium doesn’t get too dirty.

Neon Tetra Growth

In the initial few days, Neon Tetra fry will grow. You will want to slowly introduce the aquarium to additional light, depending on how dark the aquarium is from the peat moss. Every several days, remove one piece of back paper from the aquarium.

By the time the fry is roughly 2 weeks old, remove all the paper so you can clearly see the fry. You can also add overhead light, however, keep the fry out of direct sunlight for at least a month.

After the first few days, you can switch the fry from infusoria to baby brine shrimp. Take several water bottles, fill them with saltwater from your local fish store, and provide an airstone. Heat the water to 80–82 eggs, and place some baby brine ship eggs into the bottle. Once the eggs hatch, turn off the aeration, take the shells from the top, and then pipette the baby brine shrimp from the bottom.

You should rinse them with freshwater before feeding them. After another week or two, you should be able to feed them with cheaper fry food, like Hikari First Bites from your local fish store. Again be careful not to over feed your fish and when you do water changes, make sure you don’t accidentally suck up fry.

Conclusion

Neon Tetras are considered a difficult fish to breed, however, it can be very rewarding. More so, introducing new born Neon Tetras can prevent them from being removed from their habitat in the Amazon.

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