Having overcome the challenge of persuading the fishes to spawn, the aquarist soon discovers that the rummy-nose tetra presents another hurdle to successful captive reproduction—the fry are among the slowest growing of "all" characins, and indeed among the slowest-growing of all popular aquarium fishes. Infusoria and other similar foods are required for the fry for a "minimum" of three weeks, and it is not unknown for the fishes to take as long as "twelve weeks" to migrate to larger foods, growth rates being particularly sensitive to temperature. Success at raising fry to a size where they are capable of taking larger food morsels is much more likely to be achieved if the fry are kept at temperatures above 30 °C for the first 3 months of life: even then, attrition rates due to the appearance of diseases among the fishes (most frequently bacterial infections) can be severe.