How to Keep Neon Tetras and Why Neon Tetras Die Easily
The neon tetra is native to the Amazon River basin and has become increasingly familiar to people in China in recent years. The neon tetra's main value lies in its ornamental appeal; its body has two colors, red and pale green, which looks very striking. Nowadays many people keep it at home, but not everyone is clear about how to keep it.
How to Keep Neon Tetras
1. Keeping environment: In the wild, neon tetras mainly inhabit the blackwater and clearwater areas of the Solimoes River in South America. Their habitat has a typical tropical rainforest climate, hot and rainy all year round, with temperatures between 20 and 26°C, a pH between 5.0 and 7.0 (slightly acidic), and a GH between 1 and 2. Soft water is best for keeping them, but after many generations of breeding they can also tolerate the hardness of tap water.
2. Distinguishing males from females: The main way to tell male from female neon tetras is that the male's body is more slender than the female's, the end of the anal fin is pointed, and the color is darker. During the reproductive period the female's body is plumper, the anal fin is fan-shaped, and the body color is lighter.
3. Breeding method: Neon tetras reach sexual maturity at 6 months of age, and 8 to 10 months of age is the best breeding period. When the female's belly swells, keep her separate from the males for a few days, feed her fully, and then pair them up and put them in the tank. The breeding water should have a pH of 5.6 to 6.8, a GH of 1 to 3.5°, and a water temperature of 25°C, and an artificial spawning site should be placed inside. The breeding tank must be shaded from light and kept quiet. One female can lay about 150 eggs. After spawning, remove the parent fish to prevent them from swallowing the eggs; the fry hatch in 24 hours.
4. Feeding management: Neon tetra fry are tiny and swim only a little, so they can only eat when the food reaches their mouths. For the first food, sieve egg-yolk water through a 200-mesh net and feed it drop by drop with a dropper. After some time, when the fry are swimming normally, switch to egg-yolk water sieved through a 150-mesh net. The fry grow slowly, and the period during which they take egg-yolk water is longer than for other small species. In addition, the water in which the fry hatch is extremely soft, and the water temperature is completely different from the usual keeping temperature. When the fry grow to 5 mm, they should be moved to a large tank, and care should be taken to let the fry adjust to the water quality gradually.
Why Neon Tetras Die Easily
The neon tetra is inherently a rather delicate tropical fish. It is fairly timid and likes dim, quiet environments with plenty of aquatic plants. If the light is too strong or the tank is too crowded, their constitution will decline. Poor keeping methods can also cause neon tetras to die.
How Long Do Neon Tetras Live
The normal lifespan of a neon tetra is 1 to 2 years, so when keeping neon tetras, what to feed them so that they stay healthy and well has become a question many fish keepers care about. In fact, when keeping neon tetras, besides paying attention to the choice of food, issues such as the keeping environment also require special attention.
Prevention and Treatment of White Spot Disease in Neon Tetras
1. Raise the water temperature above 28°C; the Ichthyophthirius multifiliis parasite will stop reproducing, and after three days or more it will die on its own. This method is very effective and is recommended as the first choice.
2. Soak in a 2 ppm mercurous acetate or mercurous nitrate solution. At a water temperature below 15°C, soak for 3 to 4 hours; at 15 to 20°C, soak for 2 to 3 hours. After each soak, rinse the fish gently with water for 0.5 to 1 hour to wash off the parasites attached to the fish and improve the effect. For milder cases, soak twice (once a day); for severe cases, add one or two more soaks. This method has a fairly high cure rate but is rather troublesome.
3. Treat with a mixture of 0.05 ppm malachite green and 25 ppm formaldehyde solution, twice a day; it can have a certain effect.
4. Soaking the sick fish in 1% salt water for several days also has a certain effect.
When keeping neon tetras, be sure to pay attention to the environment and water quality, and once they enter the breeding period, management needs to be strengthened. In fact, as long as they are kept well, neon tetras can still live for one or two years, so care must be strengthened at ordinary times to ensure their growth.