MINI FISH PROFILE - Blue tetra

Egg laying container with damp sandy topsoil Photo: Mark Paterson

Warmth is needed for breeding and incubation of the eggs. You should aim for 27–32 °C and this can be achieved with a heat pad or a light bulb. Males only chirp between 13–38 °C so won’t attract the ladies if you can’t achieve that. If all conditions are right, and your crickets mature, it should take two weeks for them to lay eggs about 2 cm down in the soil. Remember to keep the soil moist or the eggs will dry out and be useless to you. After a few days you can move the soil containers to another heated (29–32 °C) plastic container where it should take another 2 weeks for hundreds of tiny pinhead crickets to hatch. I feed the pinheads in this container and they are very quick growing. It is now just a matter of keeping on top of maintenance, food and water and repeating the process to create a food supply for your other pets.

References: Mark Paterson

https://agpest.co.nz/?pesttypes=black-field-cricket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gryllinae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleogryllus_commodus

Blue tetra

FISH MINI PROFILE

The blue tetra (Knodus borki) is an attractive small (to 5 cm) tetra native to Colombia and Brazil. It has been misidentified in the hobby for 40 years as Cochu’s blue tetra (Boehlkea fredcochui), a species occasionally seen overseas where it is sold as Boehlkea sp. Sky Blue. Blue tetras are a schooling species that is best kept in a

well planted tank with a pH of 5.5–7.0 and a temperature of 22–26°C. They may nip the fins of other species

and should not be kept with peaceful or slow-moving tankmates. Photo Robert Beke