# Black Skirt Tetra



## blixem (Jun 13, 2005)

Went to Wally world (Wal-Mart) to pickup some fish to keep my tank cycled. (cycled fishless, then waterchanged.) Poor fishes there.... I swear they keep 50-75 fish per 10gallon tank. They had a tank full of tetras that were all healthy but looked miserable due to also having some other fish in there nipping the fins off anything. I fell really sorry for the Black Skirts as if they had been given a fin cut with a broken bottle by a drunken sailor. Bought 4 of them, and after I let them bagclimate in my tank, I dumped them in. That was about 4 hours ago. This is a freshly cycled tank, running at 80F, very soft water. at about 7.5 Ph. (*just put peat in too so this should go down some overnight*)

After that I went out to the movies and ate dinner, I came downstairs to check on my new fishes. Color isn't back in them yet from the stress, but they are active... very active... as a matter of fact, if I didn't know better I'd say they were courting. 3 of the 4 are zipping from one area to another chasing each other. When this one particular one, whom I'm guessing is the female, passes near any of the plants, the other two get on either side of her and they start vibrating with her rubbing against the leaves. (If theya are doing this tomorrow I'll film it and post it up.)

I know that Black Skirts are egg scatterers, does anyone know if this is a spawning activity?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Sounds like it. 
Man, you wouldn't think they'd be in any shape to spawn after living in a WalMart tank, but who knows, maybe they're really, really happy to get out of it.
Watch very closely. You should be able to see some eggs if there are any.


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Is it easy for all Tetras to mate. I would like to try and get some of the other fish in my tank to mate but all I've been successful for are my guppies and swordtails (whom I know mate every day that ends in 'y').


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

My blacktetras spawn when changing the temperature awith rapid waterchanges, maybe it was that?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

It probably was, among other things. A temp change into clean water would effectively simulate heavy rains, which isn't an uncommon spawning trigger for many fish.

Fishn00b, tetras are a lot trickier than livebearers to spawn, because they like to have their tank conditions a certain way, which, as it happens, is VERY different from the way livebearers like THEIR water. If you want to breed tetras, it helps a lot to have a tetra tank set up just for them. While they will occasionally spawn in a community tank, depending on the conditions of that tank, they really tend to insiste on having things their way.
Low pH, soft water, tropical photoperiod, humic/peaty/tannic water; the thing to remember is that tetras cover a wide area, and there are many water types in that area, so it helps a lot to make your tank conditions custom-fit for the species you want to breed.


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