how are neon tetras bred?

Answer 1

Neons are not the easiest fish to breed. Well, not really true, they are easy when every thing is just right, but raising the fry can be another story. They are notorious egg eaters and are quite demanding of the water quality.

You should condition the fish by feeding the widest variety of foods available. Live foods such as daphnia and brine shrimp are good choices, but a quality flake with vegetable matter in it is also important.

Your water should be very soft at least below 5 dKH and preferably below 2dKH and quite acidic pH range of 5.5 - 6.0 seems the most popular recommendation, though when I bred them the pH was about 6.3. Peat filtration helps lower the pH and also adds other chemicals to the water that seems to encourage breeding in neons and some other tetras.

Neons are an egg scattering fish so they need lots of very fine leafed plants for the eggs to adhere to when they are laid. Java moss is good for this. You can also place a fairly fine plastic screen over the bottom of the tank to protect eggs that fall to the bottom.

For feeding the fry you will need some of the smallest live foods you can get. Baby brine shrimp is too large. Micro worms and vinegar eels are good as is "wild" green water, but that includes the risk of bringing in pathogens and potential predators. The babies grow fairly quickly but need very clean water so frequent water changes will be required.

Answer 2

If you've got some in a tank right now and they're swimming about happily in their well planted aquarium,thats a start. If they're only about a half an inch it's not going to be very easy because they need to be at least two inches long and the females should be plump. Whats being sold in the shops may be adults but due to continuous breeding by experts they have become smaller and smaller.