Deanasue Has No Clue - Danios!

I noticed one of my danios was huge the other day. After watching and reading, I believe she is full of eggs. I decided to try to breed them once since I haven’t done so with danios. I have a breeding tank set up with marbles in bottom. I also have a tank for Big Mama if I need to condition her more first. Number of questions:
1. I can’t tell if she has a mate. No obvious pairing.
2. Can I use any conditioned male? How many should I add with her?
3. Do they really need to be seperated for 2 weeks before breeding. Mine are well fed and conditioned.
4. Can males stay in main tank until breeding if I feed all my fish blood worms, shrimp, etc?
4. In pics, first 2 are Big Mama. The 2nd two are of another one that may be a female. With eggs. Can anyone tell? If I do have 2 females can I breed them all at once in breeding tank? Any other tips greatly appreciated.

Danios don't pair up, they just live in groups and males and females swim off into the bushes for a quickie. The males are skinny and the females are the fat ones. Use any male you want as long as he's in good condition.

You can leave males in a community tank while the females can be moved into a different tank.
Try not to lift the females out of the water if they are full of eggs. Catch them in a net and then put a plastic container underneath the female in the net and lift her up in the net in the bucket of water.

You only need to separate them for 5 or 6 days.

Have 1-2 layers of marbles on the bottom of the tank and put a big clump of Java Moss in the tank for them.

Have an air operated sponge filter in the tank and cover the back and 2 sides with a picture or coloured card.

If you don't have a spare tank to move the females into, you can put all the females in the breeding tank for 4-5 days and then move them all out except one, and add one male to the tank. They usually start breeding straight away or the following morning.

When the female is skinny, move her and the male out and wait a few days. The babies are tiny and clear and stick to the glass or plants. A couple of days later they start swimming around and that is when they need feeding. Use infusoria, green water or boiled egg yolk for the first 2 weeks then start adding newly hatched brineshrimp.

The following link has info on culturing food for baby fish.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/

Actually everything I read says they mate for life. . Just spoke to my aquatic BFF and she says they do also. ??? @Byron do you know or @AbbeysDad .

Colin_T said:

Danios don't pair up, they just live in groups and males and females swim off into the bushes for a quickie. The males are skinny and the females are the fat ones. Use any male you want as long as he's in good condition.

You can leave males in a community tank while the females can be moved into a different tank.
Try not to lift the females out of the water if they are full of eggs. Catch them in a net and then put a plastic container underneath the female in the net and lift her up in the net in the bucket of water.

You only need to separate them for 5 or 6 days.

Have 1-2 layers of marbles on the bottom of the tank and put a big clump of Java Moss in the tank for them.

Have an air operated sponge filter in the tank and cover the back and 2 sides with a picture or coloured card.

If you don't have a spare tank to move the females into, you can put all the females in the breeding tank for 4-5 days and then move them all out except one, and add one male to the tank. They usually start breeding straight away or the following morning.

When the female is skinny, move her and the male out and wait a few days. The babies are tiny and clear and stick to the glass or plants. A couple of days later they start swimming around and that is when they need feeding. Use infusoria, green water or boiled egg yolk for the first 2 weeks then start adding newly hatched brineshrimp.

The following link has info on culturing food for baby fish.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/

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Thanks so much for the info. Now I’m just dying to know if they are one woman men. Like I Said, I have no clue.

AFAIK Colin is correct and any pair will do. Certainly applies to my CPD (well they are Danios too). To encourage spawning pour some cold water into the breeding tank to drop the temp by 2-3 degrees C (that's 4-6F). I was originally told that snow melting in the mountains and running into the rivers signals that spring has arrived. I suspect in reality its more likely that it is the start of the rainy season that does it.

What is AFAIK? I’nnot Arguing just trying to learn. This what I keep reading...
Danios are a peaceful schooling fish. ... Danios are monogamous breeders. The female will lay 400 to 500 eggs that hatch in 2 to 3 days.Dec 31, 2014


Zebra Danios mate for life
Zebra danios are a favorite of freshwater fishhobbyists because of their ease of care, and they are prolific breeders and the easiest type of egglayers to breed. ... Also, they are loyal to their breeding partner and mate for life.

I’m so confused! Should just stick with my Goldie’s.

Deanasue said:

Actually everything I read says they mate for life. . Just spoke to my aquatic BFF and she says they do also. ??? @Byron do you know or @AbbeysDad .

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No danios mate for life so far as I know. Cyprinids (danios, rasboras, barbs, loaches) and characins (tetras, pencilfish, hatchetfish) are all egg scatterers that "mate" for the purpose of spawning that one time and then move on. Most other fish are the same, generally. Cichlids can mate and bond for life, though not always.

When a female is ready to spawn, any male present may pair up for the actual egg laying/fertilizing, then move on. You will often see more than one male attempting to spawn with a female; I see this with my pencilfish continually, and cories of course.

Deanasue said:

What is AFAIK? I’nnot Arguing just trying to learn. This what I keep reading...
Danios are a peaceful schooling fish. ... Danios are monogamous breeders. The female will lay 400 to 500 eggs that hatch in 2 to 3 days.Dec 31, 2014
View attachment 94083

Zebra Danios mate for life
Zebra danios are a favorite of freshwater fishhobbyists because of their ease of care, and they are prolific breeders and the easiest type of egglayers to breed. ... Also, they are loyal to their breeding partner and mate for life.
View attachment 94083
I’m so confused! Should just stick with my Goldie’s.

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Where does this come from? I'd like to check it out.

Byron said:

Where does this come from? I'd like to check it out.

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Ok. I’ve found some other publishings that say they don’t. Very confusing.

Byron said:

Where does this come from? I'd like to check it out.

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I thought the article name copied with them. Let me see if I can find them again.

Chttps://www.itsafishthing.com/zebra-danio/ @Byron Here’s one. I also read it in guides to breeding danios but can’t find it now. One more question. With my goldfish I raise the temp to get them to spawn which I did here for the danios. Now Seangee says to add cold water. Which is best?

Deanasue said:

What is AFAIK?

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As far as I know

Deanasue said:

Chttps://www.itsafishthing.com/zebra-danio/ @Byron Here’s one. I also read it in guides to breeding danios but can’t find it now. One more question. With my goldfish I raise the temp to get them to spawn which I did here for the danios. Now Seangee says to add cold water. Which is best?

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OK, here we go.

First, that site. "Wendy" and "Brian" run it, and they claim to be "experienced fish keepers." That may well be true. Neither claims to have any professional ichthyological/biological training, and that is crucial if one is going to accept the more scientific information. I have kept fish for over 30 years now, but it has not taught me much of the science; this I have learned from the trained professionals who do know. Taking a look at their "information" it says Zebra danios attain 3 inches [SF has "usually 40-50 mm which is 1.5 to 2 inches], and can be kept in a 10g tank. Given the rapid swimming activity of this fish, even if it doesn't reach 3 inches, there is no where near sufficient space in a 10g. A 20g is insufficient. That probably says all we need to know about reliability.

SF has nothing about pairs mating/bonding for life, and that is something of sufficient interest/importance to keepers of this species that I would expect it to have been stated if true.

To your question about spawning. Fish living in the tropics spawn once the wet or rainy season is in full swing. They do this because the rains flood the watercourses to overflowing, into thousands of square kilometers of forest, where food is plentiful (insects, insect larvae, berries, etc) and space is so vast that predation is less than it would be in the watercourse itself. So the eggs and fry have a significantly better chance of survival. This intelligence is part of the evolutionary development of the species, and this is why we can "fool" the fish into spawning by replicating such conditions.

Fish detect atmospheric pressure. This may have more to do with it than cooler water (the rain) or slightly differing parameters (pH). What we do know is that such fish can be enticed more readily to spawn in an aquarium if you do a major water change with slightly cooler water on an overcast day. Feeding live foods is sometimes also necessary, though not for all species. The thinking behind this is that the fish have the inherent instinct (that evolutionary intelligence) that such occurrences are advantageous and they should reproduce. So they do.

Some fish react similarly to warmer water. I would have to dig into the species, but it may be much the same thing, only warmer rain than cooler, which is dependent upon the geography. It is a fact that the temperature of the watercourses in the tropical areas is relatively stable year-round, and even diurnally. There is no great shift from day to night or season to season (there are no seasons anyway!), as everything from daylight to temperature is basically consistent year-round. [Or at least it was until we messed it all up in the last 150 years.] Therefore, any slight temperature variation of a couple degrees becomes a much more significant event to the fish.

Deanasue said:

Now Seangee says to add cold water. Which is best?

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Check the reproduction section http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/danio-rerio/
This applies to most tropical fish.

Cold water fish go into reduced metabolism mode in winter and resume normal activity when spring comes around. I never feed my outdoor fish (at all) between October and April and turn off the airpump and UV filter. Some people turn off the filter altogether.

Tropical fish don't have to worry about the cold in winter because there is little (if any) temperature difference between the seasons. But because they live in rivers, streams or puddles they do have to worry about whether there will be enough water for their eggs or fry to survive - so breeding occurs in the rainy season. When I lived in the tropics it never rained after Easter, not a single drop until sometime between October and December, and then it rained every single day until Easter (thankfully usually at night). So the season we called winter just meant glorious weather with slightly shorter days.

P.S. The fish don't actually worry about the water level - its just programmed into them

Whoops - crossed over with @Byron, lucky we said sometting similar