Bengal Danios Breeding?

[Wishful]

Hi

We have a new tank set up cycling with Danios and Tetras. Two of the danios are Bengals. We believe that one of them sustained a mouth injury in the bag on the way home from the fish shop and it showed signs of mouth fungus which is now much improved. I put the fact that this Bengal was paler down to it not being well, but in the last two days both the Bengals behaviour has changed.

The paler one has a distented belly and is hanging around the larger plants at the back of the tank, chasing away the other Danios (leopard) if they come close. The brighter coloured Bengal (who tends to be a bit of a bully) has been swimming around with the paler one showing some strange antics which I can only think must be courtship. They are both quite a lot more aggressive than normal.

We did water tests yesterday and although everything else was normal, we noticed that the pH has gone up by one half from 7.5 to 8, but we had introduced new plants the day before, and it has been very warm in the last few days so the temperature in tank is a little raised.

Is it possible that they are trying to breed in such a new tank, and if so, what do I do?

Thanks for any advice

Wishful

 

[The-Wolf]

Hi Wishful
first of all Bengal Danios ( Devario devario) are not the best choice for a cycling tank, and neither IMO are tetras.
Do you know that Bengals will be 10cm as adults?
What size is your tank?

Like all danios they should be kept in groups of at least five, this is too keep their attension on theirselfs and not become aggressive to other fish.

I have keept Bengals with the smaller danios and they do not like the smaller fish and became very aggressive towards them. I now keep my bengals with the other larger types of danio. I.E. Giant danio(danio devario) and Moustached danio ( danio danglia) and since giving them tank mates of similar size they are a very nice and peacefull fish.

As for breeding they are not that easy in tank enviroments and differ greatly from Zebras, Leopards etc.

Plese feel free to pm me if you would like any more infomation I have loads to hand. Also checkout my website for some basics.

 

[Wishful]

Thanks Danio2004

We realise now many of the things you pointed out. Unfortunately, we were given bad advice at the shop that we bought our first lot of fish and would do things differently now. However, we have been fortunate in that during the maturation of our filter the nitrite, ammonia and now nitrate levels have remained excellent. We did lose one of the Tetras within a week, but I have a feeling that he was not a well fish anyway. At first we did not even know we had Bengal Danios, the fish shop referred to them as Blue Danios.

Our tank is 27 gallons.

Anyway, we've done lots of reading up, know that we will have to increase the size of our tank in the short term and so far, touch wood, have not exprienced any particular aggression towards the other Danios. The one that I think is male does chase the other fish sometimes, but does not seem to cause them any particular stress. They certainly don't hide from him. In fact one of the Leopards (not even sure this one is a Leopard!) seems to be familiar with Top Gun. When the Bengal goes after him, he's perfected the art of 'slamming on the anchors and the Bengal flies right by'!

We will, of course, watch carefully to make sure that no real bullying takes place. If it does we'll have to make a call about the best course of action. If we are in a position to have a second tank, all well and good, but in the absence of that option we have now found an excellent local fish shop that gives great advice, is knowledgeable about the fish they sell and care about the fish they sell too. I know that if the worst came to the worst, they would find a new home for them. They have recently rehomed four clown loaches of approx 6 inches and would not let them be split up as they had been together all their lives.

So you think it unlikely that they are displaying mating behaviours then?

 

[The-Wolf]

Thanks Danio2004

At first we did not even know we had Bengal Danios, the fish shop referred to them as Blue Danios.

Our tank is 27 gallons.

So you think it unlikely that they are displaying mating behaviours then?

No problem happy to help.

Sorry to hear of the loss of one of your tetras

Bengal danios are some times called Sind Danio or Turquoise Danio, which often give room to mislable them as blue danios. So I can see where that one has come from. If you do come accross blue danios (danio kerris) them buy them as they are hard to find.

27 gallons should be plenty of room for five adults so no problems there.
Its good that at the moment there is no seriouse aggression in your tank but like you say keep your eye on it.
It is always good to find a lfs that will take fish off your hands especially if you are going to breed them.

Breeding behaviour will be somthing akin to this.
male and female will take it in turns to "play" follow the leader, normally initiated by the female. they can do this for hours or even days. When both are ready during this chase game they will stop suddenly and intetwine for a second or two, then the chase is on again. spawning usually takes place at dawn or dusk.
All danios are cannabalistic to their eggs and fry so ideally the parnets should be spawned in a seperate tank and removed after the event. Bengals are egg scatterers and they will need plants to spawn in, as their eggs are semi-adhesive, un-like many danios.

So to sum up at this moment in time no I don't think that yours are showing breeding behaviour yet