HOW TO BREED CARDINAL TETRAS FROM SPAWN TO FREE SWIMMING 

Mark, your breeding videos are great! One thing you might think about doing is adding a few bullet points to your summary that cover the key points e.g. Ph range, temperature, pair or small school, typical spawning time of day, number of infusoria feedings per day, etc. All these things are in the video, but sometimes they are pretty spread out and it would be FANTASTIC to have that as a reference in your comments when you post the video, so it's all easy to find when the viewer wants a quick refresher but doesn't want to spend the 15-30 minutes rewatching the whole show. Again, hats off: your channel is great!

Mark you are simply one of the best fish breeders I've ever seen. I've learned a lot from you and I will be watching your Channel for a long time to come from here in California.

When i bred fish back in the day ,it waswhen they were all wild caught fish ,noone knew really how to get a surviving brood,your vids amaze me,thank you

Mark, it's people like you who keeps this hobby going. Thanks.

I must also add that I love your organic approach. I have tried the same and it works really well. There is a HUGE discussion around this sterile environment for breeding or not, and some of the folks I have learned from get really upset if you try to breed tetras in an "organic" environment. "THEY NEED STERILE TANKS!!!". Yeah, right. :D But I can admit there is a difference if you breed professionally or not - the record neon batch for one of my friends is 130 (plus) fry from one pair. That is insane, and professional. Personally, I am really happy to see a few youngsters born in the "natural way".

New subscriber here, and I absolutely LOVE your channel! The breeding videos have been fantastic and your DIY tanks are inspirational. I never knew these were so easy to breed and I can't wait to try it myself. CHEERS!

Hello Mark. Coming from a true veteran of the hobby, I'd like like to say I think you are the finest aquarist on U-Tube - bar none. Your work is very much appreciated.

Inspiring vid! Now i know what im gonna breed, everyone here in Sweden ive talked with are sceptical when i say i want to breed Kardinals hehe, im gonna prove em wrong!

First fish I ever kept, take me back to when I had tanks instead of ponds😂😂

i have used hard boiled egg yolk to feed fry before. you take a pinch and the rub your fingers together in the water. wham!! baby fish food.

Finally got my ember tetras to successfully spawn and not eat their eggs and young! I have gobs now!!! Love your videos!

Those diamonds are stunning. They really come to life in a blackwater set up.

Excellent presentation and very thorough. I appreciate all the work you've done on this. Thank YOU! Thumbs up and I wish you all the best!

By far the best and most detailed fish breeder on RU-vid... Keep up the excellent work mate, THANKS!!

Saw this video the other week and thought I’d give it a try. I got 8 cardinals today and will start feeding them up over the next few weeks. Thankyou for this video. I hope to see more new videos soon.

The other I day I fought my way through a Spanish paper from Argentina about standardizing ways to spawn cardinal tetras. They had interesting experimental setups, from doing nothing particular to simulating rainy season and even loading up baby brine shrimp with hormones. In the end, they didn't get a single spawning. But apparently, when they did histology on the females afterwards, all had been carrying mature eggs ready to spawn, even those in the control groups... It can be so easy and sometimes it just isn't.

Another excellent video Mark. You said you avoid pH buffers, but would tannin powder you can buy from your wine & beer brew shop work well? A lot cheaper than almond leaves at least around me....

That’s a cracking video Mark. I teach aquatics at a college, and will be showing your channel to my students next week, and getting them to have a go at breeding some cardinals and rummeynoses that we have. I’ll also make sure they all subscribe! Thanks for all your hard work.

Perfect timing mark ! After following some of your previous breeding vids and having success I was thinking of giving my cardinals a go 👍 as always love your vids and thank you 👍

I think I've watched this 4 or 5 times now. Maybe one day I'll actually catch out a few of mine and try it.

Hay mark. You should do a quick video on how you soak your compost/peet lol. Just to make it clear for people. Because some people won't get it... :/

EXCELLENT MARK 👌🏻 CARDINALS BEING ONE OF MY FAVOURITE FISH.JUST BUILT A RACK SYSTEM FOR 9 TANKS 4 BEING 1 GALLON EACH..IM GONA GIVE THIS A GO 👌🏻👌🏻Steve,Devon.

You read my mind! I literally picked up some cardinals to breed today!

Peat moss should work to lower pH too.

Mark, watching this has made me curious, I've been trying to breed my green neon tetra, but I've seen no spawning activity, I have really struggled to pick out males and females due to their tiny size, I have 6 fish in the tank of which I'm reasonably confident at least some are opposite sexes, but in this video you mentioned wild caught specimens being harder to breed, and it turns out that most green neon tetra are wild caught fish, I'm not 100% certain that mine are as I never asked the question, but I'd assume they were, I was wondering if you might be able to do a video series on them, or even just on breeding wild caught fish explaining the difficulties, and how to find solutions, it'd be a great help to me, and hopefully other people in a similar position, and to my mind it would also be a help to the river systems these fish are taken from! Thanks either way, your videos are easily the most in depth I've found on youtube.

Awesome 👏 These videos make me want to breed so much Ps I was thinking maybe little mood music in the background would have helped the breeding start lol 😂

Technically the transition from hard to soft water is a lot more stressful and it takes days. When fish take oxygen from the water they lose ions like calcium and sodium. The gills have mechanisms to compensate that, but when the ion concentration suddenly drops, this capacity is overrun and it takes a few days to adapt. Apparently, this stress is part of their spawning trigger.

Wonderful job Mark! You are my go to guy On the how to's for breeding my favorite hobby fish.

Fantastic as usual. I just wish I am half as successful as you with my fish endeavours. Lots of love to you and yours

🙂 Hi Mark...I think, your videos are among the best when it comes to helping others with fish keeping and breeding...thanks for your time....great to see a guy, like yourself, enjoying his hobby...and very informative for those who watch it.THANKS 👍

I counted 27 fry and I bet there are at least 10-15 more. Tops 45 fry.

Wow great videos mark! Just amazing!! You really know your stuff and what your doing! Can't what for an update vid on these lil guys and see how they are doing

You put me in such calm mode, I would totally breed.

Simply amazing video mark, love ur breeding series, great video with lot of detail. Thanks Mark's

clicked the like button before watching 😊

Hi Mark your videos are just brilliant and I will be having a go at breeding my cardinals using your method.

Hi Mark! Great video! Loving the breeding series! It would be great if you did Boraras brigittae (chilli rasbora). Thank you for the great videos!

Hey Mark im a new sub, found your channel yesterday and have been watching all you're videos. Question, how often are you changing water on a set up like this? will this tank stay un filtered till they are big enough to move?

Hey guys, my neon tetra eggs haven't hatched in 40 hours. any ideas on what is happening? They didn't turn white, pretty much stayed the same color they were on day 1 (transparent). Pure RO water reminaralized with tannins from maple leaves, 25 degrees temp. No fungus or anything on them, just stayed like they were on the first day.... Whole tank was cover with aluminium foil for 40 hours (since they hatched until now).

Thanks again Mark for another stupendous video on how to do something I think we have all wondered about. You have de-mystified the Cardinal tetra. I like the fact that you figured out what to do even after the first pair wasn't cooperating. I appreciate all of your great videos. Thank you so much!! #fishfam

Love this vid subscribed. I'm planing on getting rid of most my convict cichlids and upgrading my 55 showtank to a 90 planted tanks and planning on breeding a gyant cloud of tetras.

Great video again Mark. Any chance you would be willing to try breeding green neon tetras? I've heard that they are pretty difficult to breed, and as they are somewhat hard to come by I think a video of breeding them would a nice way to make them more available and popular. I've got 14 of those and they are such a nice little fish that I wish more people would be able to keep.

You are the best...

What's the water parameters in your community tank?

Great learning video on caedinal tetras spawning. Did the update ever happen? I have not learned to make a search on just your channel so I get tons of orher hits. But I suppose you make playlists if you have several connected videos.

Again, a very nice video. Inspiring and full of facts. I just wanted to add another method one can try, if the species one tries to breed is difficult and won´t spawn. "The natural hormone method". As for the cardinals, add a pair of neons instead of more cardinals. They neons might spawn easier, and release "spawning hormones" in the water. That can trigger the cardinals too. There are many setups for tanks here, and of course it differs if you breed professionally or just for fun - but it is a cool trick that has sometimes worked for me.

Great channel, don't worry about zooming too much ,like you say you can tell whats going on just from the way the adults and the fry are moving ,and yes man you make it look so easy

Is there a reason why you don’t cap your compost with sand? Is it to speed up the process of lowering the pH? So the eggs are hidden within the peat?

Mark great video and fantastic channel from a fellow fish keeper.

Thankyou alot mark, I really enjoy watching your videos 💪🏻🏆

Another amazing video Mark. Always look forward to your videos!

Well done! Please post an update. Been looking everywhere for a video showing this. Subscribed.

Mark, you are a master breeder! I love your breeding videos, keep them up!

These videos about breeding are fantastic.

Fantastic video thanks for taking the time Mark, my next project is these fish

doing great mark!

Hi Mark. I've seen your neon tetra breading video but wanted to have a go at cardinals so it's great to see this video. I'm just feeding up about 10 cardinals now to get them ready for breeding. Just wondering if you thought sedge peat would be ok for substrate or if you had a link to any suitable composts. Excellent video as always mate.

Hey Mark, thanks for all your informative video's. They are brilliant and so educational!!! I'm about to attempt breeding Cardinals. How often (or capable) will the adults spawn??? Every 24hrs???, 48hrs???, Weekly??? (I'm after a lot of babies) Also, at what point in time would you add a filter and start small water changes for the babies tank??? Cheers

I love Cardinal Tetras. Thanks For The Video

Love video Mark Could you feed vinegar eels or micro worms to the newborn fry? Also could you do a video on how you grow bbs to adults? Thanks mate. Gr8 job

Finally!!!! Been waiting for this! Amazing job!!!! Altums next?

Thank you very much for your videos and the knowledge on how to breed neon Tetris

Great video thank you. I haven't got a separate tank but our cardinals, couple in particular are full of eggs and ready to spawn, will any ever survive in the main tank please? 😕

Mark what I think helps with reluctant breeding fish as well as live food is a Barry White album to get them in the mood?....it works for me ...great vids thank you

Hi Mark, if I cultured infusoria can I freeze them, alternatively what's the best way to keep them? On another note I'm having a clear out and have a large amount of Indian almond leaves, if your interested let me know and there yours it's the least I can do given all the questions I've asked over the last 12 months ;)

I was wondering have you ever kept the African dwarf clawed frogs? The males sing in the tanks they are in. I don't know if they have been bred or not. I would think they would eat shrimplets or fish fry if given the chance, but they tend to feed by scent not sight. They do eat all sorts of worm like foods, fresh frozen and live.

I imagine in the wild they all mass-spawn in a massive school together rather than a select pair or trio going off together and spawning independently. Perhaps the addition of more pairs makes them feel more comfortable and makes them more likely to spawn? I don't know the ins and outs of tetra spawning very much

Hi, if the eggs will be dropped into the mop or some plant what is the reason for using compost? It's the water pH? Isn't there another way to adjust the parameters, a cleaner one?

Thanks for sharing sir!!!

The mob of what kind is it? any organic? are they in 100% osmosis water? without oxygenator? excuse so many questions it happens that the video is in English and I don't understand that language, thank you.

Hi Mark, is it fine if you can share a URL or some reference of the peat/substrate/compost you use? What I keep finding here are all cattle manure base, not sure if that would work. Please enlighten us.

With nothing breaking the surface of the water, how does the water stay oxygenated? Yes I am a nube to the hobby, and this is fascinating.

Hi, Mark. Great channel you have here so I’m a new subscriber. Watching your cardinal breeding video has spurred me on to giving it a go. I’ve brought a 10l tank, lights and heater and have an infusoria culture on the go, although after 5 days I see no sign of life just a bacteria bloom and a rotten smell lol. Anyway, I have a question for you. It would appear that its all about the timing with things like getting the tank ready, the infusoria breeding and so on. The only thing you don’t mention is when to start to condition your adults. Could you give me some idea on the number days you start to condition before you want to transfer them into the breeding tank?

Considering how similar they are and the fact that they shoal with each other, I wonder if anyone has ever managed to pull off getting a cardinal tetra to spawn with a neon tetra or false neon tetra, or a neon with a false neon? I'm guessing the offspring would have varying degrees of red and blue.

thx another great video i love them all. question have you ever made a pywood tank. and if plz make a video about it. i like too make a tank 2,50 m x 1,25m x 0,5m how thik do you then the glas have to be. sory about my English. im only a stupid dane. ;)

Would earth worm castings be a better choice then compost as every compost I come across that says organic still has the ppm of the nutrients added as for the worm castings its worm poop, Also would compost or worm castings/poop bring up ammonia levels in the aquarium?

Hi Mark, I have been watching your video on breeding cadinal tetras. I want to try this but im having bother with the compost. I have purchased westland Aquatic Planting & Potting compost, peat free. It says its compost for outdoor plants. Can I use this.

Mate I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Do you have a later video of these results? It's now December?

Would it help to play some Barry White in the background? Can't Get Enought of your Love, Baby? Or tropical thunderstorm and rain sounds?

What brand of heater are you using in this video? Great work as always! 🥂

can you inject Co2 to drop the pH instead? like a planted tank

Mark I’m just now viewing this video on breeding cardinal Tetris. Mark if you need the tank at 6.0 to 6.5 why don’t you just use distilled water with a little tapwater to adjust pH? Why add the compost if your goal is just to bring it to 6.5 why not just use distilled water and get rid of the compost? Or is there something about the compost That is needed? Does the compost provide extra food is that why you use it?

hi Mark i have a question may use real peat moss in substitution of the compost because here in my country (Panama) i have big doubts of the compost offer in the store or any plant oriented store is free from fertilizers and with the peat moss that i can find is 100% guarantee that is free from any fertilizer or chemical, by the way , you are the BEST, cheers from Panama

What is the temperature of the heater in degrees Celsius?

I love all your breeding videos.... if i want to breed any fish ... first to check in your channel avialble or not ... Thanks Mark.

Hi Mark I'm ripper Rita from Australia just want to ask what type of leaf litter do U use so I don't poisen me cardinal s let me no please your the best 😅

great stuff ,thanks Mark

Could you add peat to your canister filter to lower ph? I haven't tried that yet. How much would you use and what kind of netting would be able to hold something so fine? Would it block water flow too much?

Hi sir. Can i use a lot of indian almond leaves to soften and acidify the water? Im from malaysia. I have lots of those.

Great video. Two thumbs up

Hello Mark, please what did you put in the aquarium like earth? thanks

I noticed you didn't add a bubbler. I thought you need those to stir up the surface so the fish can breathe?

Mark would you include a link to the light that you are using on the tank?

Awesome informative video. Learning a lot from you.😊👍

How often will you change the water and how much will you change? When will you do the first water change?

Whats the name of the food you make ? Could not quite catch what your saying

Excellent video. Subscribed! Watching from West Yorkshire

Will this work with Red eyed tetra hiding in a log? I believe a female but with other fish. What should we do? I also believe we have male keeping other fish away from log.

Mark, I rasied Bettas for a long time haven't been in the fish raising in quite sometime - is there a way to list like the clay size pots you have for the Neons and the long caves that look like pots - - this was from the video part 4 when you take the young and let them swim into the larger tank on their own. Also, you had a device to measure the PH - couldn't find one - not that I looked real hard. Maybe list the item by manufacturer's name. Thanks a bunch - I wish I would have had these videos 18 years ago when my youngest was 12. Keep up the good work. Bob from OHIO!!

Super,Mark!!Greetings from Poland!! I love cardinal tetras I also breed them.