I have a 10 gallon tank previously set up as a neon tetra tank, then I moved them into my 55 gallon blackwater stream tank, and turned the 10 gallon into a shrimp tank around 3 weeks ago ( I left a couple of inches of water in the tank) .

Around 2 and 1/2 weeks ago I saw tiny babies (what kind of babies they were i did/do not know) At first I thought they were shrimp babies, but a couple of days ago I have ruled that out, for a couple of reasons = 1. they do not look anything like my cherry shrimp 2. The way they eat is more fishy then shrimpy, they just grab the food not take it will any type of "feet." They were around .3 cm when I first saw them, and now are around 1/2-1 cm. The biggest ones have a blue line going across.

At first I thought some eggs came in the plant that came with the shrimp, but there were no fish in that tank, so i have come to this strange conclusion: The neon tetras that I have kept in the 10 gallon for 1 month has spawned, layed eggs in the gravel, then the eggs stayed dormant for 1 1/2 months in 50-60 degrees weather until I raised the temperature, filtered the water, etc... I thought this was sort of bizzare... What do you guys think?

If they were shrimp babies, you would have no question what they are ... my cherry shrimp had four babies recently and they look identical to their mom.
The legs, tail, whip antennas, color, etc. ... all exactly the same. I did have to use a magnifying glass to see the detail, but there was no doubt.
I also have about a dozen neon tetras in the same tank. Can't say if they ever bred and layed eggs, I might have missed that though.

One & 1/2 months sounds like an awful long incubation period for fish eggs ... even with the drop in temperature.

I just looked at Robyn's neon page (sorry I don't know how to put up links yet), and it says the eggs will hatch in a day or so.
Do you think that maybe they hatched right after you removed the adults and went unnoticed, since the tank was temporarily abandoned?
I guess you probably would have noticed them when you were setting it up for the shrimp.

Maybe your first hunch was right, some eggs rode in with the plants. Is it possible that there were fish in the shrimp aquarium in the days before you picked them up at the store?

Time will tell what they are ... if they keep eating, and actually survive!! :)

PG

Thanks, I thought my idea was a more imagination then anything else. I hope they do well!


-Animallove

Neon tetras rarely breed in captivity but they can. Their eggs will hatch within a few days. It's possible you would have not noticed the eggs or babies as they are so, so tiny. Neon tetras would be about a cm in 4 to 6 weeks. Plus, they do have the blue line down their bodies.

It's also possible that fish eggs or fry came with your plants. At my local fish store, if they find fish eggs or fry, they put them into the planted tanks to grow up. Sometimes, those babies may get sent out with plants.

If you had the temperatures below 60 to 65 degrees F in there, I couldn't imagine neon tetra babies surviving that but who knows.

Now I'm thinking that they are some type of zebra danio. I can't remember if my LF danio were in that tank before, but they could have been (I have a horrible memory lol) At first the fry had a bright blue line going across, now they have yellow-orangish stripe, and I dont know, they have a danio feeling to them. (for now at least)

If zebra danios were in that tank, it certainly wouldn't be surprising to find their babies. My zebra danios were always super prolific breeders.

Hi AnimalLover

I would like to try and breed neon babies but I read that it is very hard to do.The conditions of the tank have to be perfect.I think it has to be in a dark area but I'm not sure.I do have a dozen neons and if I get a spare tank maybe I will try.
Let me know what the babies are.
Thanks swampview

I am almost 100% sure the babies are Long fin danio, which I'm happy about I geuss, but it would have been pretty awesome if they were neon tetra's. I read a bit on breeding neon tetra's and yeah, they need a period of darkness and a bunch more, a good challenge I geuss. Anyway, the danio fry are doing great, and have gotten much bigger.