Pregnant tetra?

[Friendly]

I think one of my black phantom tetras is pregnant! Her tummy seems to get bigger every week. I know it can't be dropsy because she's doing extremely well and her colors are even more vibrant then my other black phantoms. Since she's sort of transparent, it looks like she has eggs in her tummy when I look at her close up. I've been feeding a varied diet of tetramin flakes, spirulina flakes, freeze dried blood worms, and baby brine shrimp. I have read that when fed a varied diet they will spawn. I have also noticed that the biggest male has been swimming circles around the female and acting weird. I know that if my tetra did spawn, the eggs wouldn't survive because the ph of my water is way too high for them ( 7.6-7.8 ). I also don't have an extra tank for breeding.

I’m hoping within the next 2-3 weeks I will be injecting pressurized co2 into my tank. That will for sure drop my ph in between the 6.0-7.0 range (perfect for tetras). Do you think that would help the eggs survive? I just hope that my tetra doesn’t lay her eggs before then. I have never dealt with something like this before and I would love to a whole bunch of baby black phantoms!

 

[Friendly]

I did a little more research and yeah, I'm gonna need a small breeding tank if I want to have babies. I don't think it would ever be possible for the fry to survive in my planted tank, especially with hungry neons. And that's if the eggs even hatched. I'm gonna try to get a small breeding tank.

If my female phantom did lay her eggs before I could move her and a male (can it be any male?) into a breeding tank, and say the eggs were fertilized, could I siphon out the eggs and put them into the breeding tank? My main concern is, would the eggs be shocked at all by the sudden difference in ph? I would have the ph in the breeding tank around 6.0-6.5. I would use peat to lower the ph of the water.

 

[BrianNY]

Actually, if you're going to get a spawning tank, place the breeders in that tank in the morning, and remove them when spawning is complete. That's much easier than trying to siphon eggs.

Java moss is a great spawning medium. Or, a few rows of marbles will also work.

 

[penguincontact]

thanks for the great info. marbles it is.