Breeding Zebra Danios

[adam12345]

Dont know if this is the right place to put this but the only other place i can see is livebeares, but zebra danios are egg layers so thought id give it a go in this topic.


i have guppys and they have had fry and i dont know what to do with them so now i let them get eaten. but the first time they had babys it was amazing. now i want to get my zebra danios to breed. i love them there my faviourte fish and they i could get them to breed i would want them to grow up and be put into my main tank.

so anyway the questons...

ive read little bits about it and its the easyiest egg layer to breed right? so thats a good start!

i have my main tank and i also have a breeding tank where my guppys are, but i also have a spare tank lying about its only about 30 liters at the maxium is this big enough?

sexing them? read quite abit still strugling. i have 5 zebras and ive read males are thinner and are golden tint to them and the females are deeper bodyed and have a silver tint to them? if i had to say i think i have 1 male and 4 females but not sure

condicting them read his is importent? i ahve freeze dried blood worm will this do the job? and do i feed them it in my main tank with my other fish or do i ahve to seperate them into different tanks then condicition them?

can anyone give me a step by step guide how to breed zebra danios, useful tips and things to look out for? would be great!

thank you!

 

[kelly528]

There are many step by step guides all over the internet, the hardest part is typing it into google. So I'm not gonna go into detail on that.

However, FD bloodworms will not do the job for conditioning IMO. You will want to feed them a very generous diet for a few weeks, consisting of a few high quality pellets (New Life Spectrum, Hikari Micro Wafers and Hikari Micro Pellets are all great), some boiled veggies (I like kale and spinach as far as nutrition goes) and lots of varieties frozen/live food. I use Hikari Bio Pure frozen food, it comes in convenient blister packs. Get their daphnia for sure, it is small enough to feed to fry after you have conditioned the parents. Then I would pick 2 other frozen foods, they also offer bloodworms, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, krill and mysis shrimp. I like bloodworms, tubifex worms and krill the best.

As you condition then it will become really obvious who the females are. After a few weeks of eating well they will be huge with eggs. I never even thought to look for silver or gold tints but the males and females that I kept were really easy to tell because the females were huge from the high quality diet I fed them.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

There are many step by step guides all over the internet, the hardest part is typing it into google. So I'm not gonna go into detail on that.

However, FD bloodworms will not do the job for conditioning IMO. You will want to feed them a very generous diet for a few weeks, consisting of a few high quality pellets (New Life Spectrum, Hikari Micro Wafers and Hikari Micro Pellets are all great), some boiled veggies (I like kale and spinach as far as nutrition goes) and lots of varieties frozen/live food. I use Hikari Bio Pure frozen food, it comes in convenient blister packs. Get their daphnia for sure, it is small enough to feed to fry after you have conditioned the parents. Then I would pick 2 other frozen foods, they also offer bloodworms, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, krill and mysis shrimp. I like bloodworms, tubifex worms and krill the best.

As you condition then it will become really obvious who the females are. After a few weeks of eating well they will be huge with eggs. I never even thought to look for silver or gold tints but the males and females that I kept were really easy to tell because the females were huge from the high quality diet I fed them.

In a topic with more or less the same title, I have given a full account of how I used to breed them.... It is foolproof and tried (guaranteed)... I will look up and copy/paste for you.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Ah!... I found it....

It’s been a while since I last bred Danios of any sort, but this is an account of how I did it: (this is also the method I used for most Characins and other egg scatterers…i.e. red eye Tetras, Black widows, - mainly all non adhesive egg fish)

pH was not much of a focus area as Danios are reasonably flexible in ranges from 6.8 to around 7.4 and the temperature ranged between 25 & 28 deg C.

Ideally, 3 tanks (24”x12”x12”) produces the best results for mass spawnings … one tank to condition the males, one tank to condition the females and one tank to spawn them in…. (I used 3 tanks because I had them available, but you can get away with using 1 tank with a partition (You can use a glass devider... I normally used an 8mm thick perspex sheet with hundreds of 8mm holes drilled through it to allow some water exchange between the various compartments) between the male and female sides which is removed when you want to spawn them)….I always used two more males than females i.e. 5 males to 3 females, 7 males to 5 females etc.)

At least a week before the spawning date, I’d separate the males and females and “condition” them (mainly) on live Daphnia, Newly hatched brine shrimp and bloodworms.

The spawning media may vary from marbles covering the whole base area, to a cluster of thick plants (hornwort or Cabomba) bundled in the darkest corner & weighed down by a small stone. (Plastic spawning mats are also effective).

I find that the best positioning of your aeration is directly in the v of the back panel on the same side where you've clustered your targetted spawning area. A medium flow which visibly circulates the water in this area also seems to stimulate breeding to some extent

Two days before I intend to place males and females together, I would add 4 drops of Liquifry to the spawning tank, so that infusoria can start developing as first foods for the fry when they hatch.

On the evening before the “planned” spawning event, I would drain the water to around 4” depth, cover the tank (in darkness) if the light cannot be switched off, and set my alarm for sunrise the next morning.

When I remove the covers in the morning (or switch on the light), I’d fill the tank to around 8” depth with water at a slightly lower temp than the water in the tank, and remove the partition between males & females, or if more tanks was used, transfer the males to the female tank. Spawning will start immediately and carry on for almost 4 hours.

Observe periodically as one or more fish may be “spawned out” long before the rest and then start egg hunting and eating them…. If you observe any such culprit, remove them immediately, as they will eat many, many eggs. (your intervention will not stop the spawning activity)

After some time, you will observe that most of them would have no further interest in spawning, (and all indulge in egg-eating) at which time you remove them all to their original quarters.

When all spawners have been removed, syphon water out from the top on the opposite side of your "targetted" spawn area to a depth of 4",- just making sure that none of your spawn receptical protrude above water level - (so that you can just top up 1" of water per day after the fry becomes free swimming and you do not have the risk of syphoning them out when doing water changes during the first week).

During the spawning and hatching process.... only an airstone is necessary in the position I have mentioned.... After freeswimming (which would be on the third day after spawning)... You refill the tank by 1" per day, (having started off at 4"... as stated)...On the 4th day you will then be at 8" and only then, you disconnect your airstone and connect your tubing to a sponge filter. (doing it earlier than that, ... your fry will be sucked up by the sponge filter (or any other filter).

And then…. Congratulations!!!... you’ve achieved your first spawning…. As easy as that. (the fish will be ready for their next spawning about 8 days later if the same procedure is applied.)


I've Re-editted the above to include some important points on filtration which I ommitted during the first attempt.... (as I said... it's been a long time since I last bred Danios & I may even recall some more issues for inclussion)

the information that you have provided is excellent,and easy to understand..
.. and i appreciate the work you put into typing it all

shelagh xxx

Harlequins
Fab advice

If i hadn't just sold my silvertips i would've have tried that with them,they had been spawning but in the main tank,hence eggs were lost forever

40 years of experience counts for a lot

edited to add- that should be pinned ludwig .....

Hughessomefish
ludwing, and I agree that should be pinned you deserve it !!

Alex271
Thank you for all the Information

WaterdropAre you kidding Ludwig?? I was struck dumb, so to speak. It was such a wonderful account of accumulated experience that I just read it several times, shook my head and felt myself lucky to have found this forum that has enough to attract the really old (meaning many years of experience!) pros like yourself so we can get to hear things like that. Many thanks!

Ludwig
I will go as far as to say "I guarantee success with this method".... ...

wow way to go,fab thread full of info

Harlequinskeep us informed oldman on how it goes

Well done ludwig

WaterdropAnyway, that makes me think not all egg layers are impossible and to easily believe you could have success with info like ludwig is helping with. WD

Angelfishguypin pin pin!!!!!!!!!!!

HarlequinsI've bumped this back to the top,has i think its has such fab info for breeding from egg scatterers and should be pinned for sure

Thank you all you guys for acknowledging the potential value of this contribution, but, as it is, Lljidma is in the leader of the Characins (& egg scatterers) section, so it is exclussively up to her if it get pinned or not.... But the challenge is still out there for anyone to try this method, and give us feedback of the (positive) results.

Just curious to know... has anyone tried this method???... I still maintain and guarantee that it will work... Please give us feedback!

 

[adam12345]

i will give it a go once i have got some better food for conditioning i will post how it goes so if u wanna keep an eye on the post thats kool. ive only got one spare tank so gna have to seperate it somehow. but a little queston is temp? what time is advisiable? because i used to have mine in cold water thats what they were in the shop and now there in my tropical set up, but i dont have a spare heater anymore so if it needs to be above room temp then ill have to get another heater too. but thank you very much that information will help me soo much! and is great for anyone who wants to try and breed an egg layer!