Brass Tetra Courting Behavior

Hi. I noticed yesterday that two of my three brass tetras are doing a kind
of dance. They shimmie in front of each other, spread out all their fins,
then zoom around the tank side by side in unison. They do this over and
over. Sometimes, one them becomes nippy toward the other two, but usually
just the same two exhibit this bechavior. I have to think this is courting.
If so, I wonder if there is any hope of seeing eggs get laid. The water is
very, very hard, and the pH is around an 8.2 so I was surprised to see this
going on. I'm also in the middle of treating an ich outbreak to boot.
Maybe the large water changes stimulated something. I think the Rid Ich
treatment killed off all the beautiful cardinal tetras and half the black
neons, but since I did some research here and stopped following the bottle
recommendations, things seem more stable now.

thanks for any comments,
dwhite

Dan White wrote:
Hi. I noticed yesterday that two of my three brass tetras are doing a kind
of dance. They shimmie in front of each other, spread out all their fins,
then zoom around the tank side by side in unison. They do this over and
over. Sometimes, one them becomes nippy toward the other two, but usually
just the same two exhibit this bechavior. I have to think this is courting.
If so, I wonder if there is any hope of seeing eggs get laid. The water is
very, very hard, and the pH is around an 8.2 so I was surprised to see this
going on. I'm also in the middle of treating an ich outbreak to boot.
Maybe the large water changes stimulated something. I think the Rid Ich
treatment killed off all the beautiful cardinal tetras and half the black
neons, but since I did some research here and stopped following the bottle
recommendations, things seem more stable now.

thanks for any comments,
dwhite

Yes, that's courting behavior. You may see eggs, but they are very
unlikely to be fertile in high pH, hard water. You might Google search
to see whether brass tetras are egg scatterers or substrate spawners so
you have a better idea of what to watch for. Also look for what time
they tend to spawn - many lay eggs very early in the morning.

I'm sorry to hear about your cardinals and black neons. Rid Ich has
malachite green in it, which is rather hard on many tetras and loaches.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Elaine T wrote:

Yes, that's courting behavior. You may see eggs, but they are very
unlikely to be fertile in high pH, hard water. You might Google
search to see whether brass tetras are egg scatterers or substrate
spawners so you have a better idea of what to watch for. Also look
for what time they tend to spawn - many lay eggs very early in the
morning.

I'm sorry to hear about your cardinals and black neons. Rid Ich has
malachite green in it, which is rather hard on many tetras and
loaches.

thanks for the reply. The cory's will probably get the eggs anyway.

dwhite