Can someone help with sexing danios?

[rgoodwin218]

Ignore the water, we're due a clean today. I just wondered if anyone could tell the sex by looking really? The zebra has been chasing the leopard and i'm concerned it may be because the leopard is female. If so i'm going to add another female but what i don't want to do is add a female if they are both male. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[GobyMaster11276]

The leopard danio is a female, and the zebra is male. My advice is to get more females (you should have at least a small shoal of 5). They will be more confident and happier in larger numbers.

 

[rgoodwin218]

Ah! Thank you!

 

[GobyMaster11276]

No problem.

 

[Byron]

There may be a problem here. The Zebra Danio and the Leopard Danio are two different species. They each need a group of their own species, at least six (of each species), but more is better if you have space in the tank. How many of each species do you have now?

These are what we term shoaling fish. Shoaling fish live in very large groups, and they have an inherent need to be in a group, programmed into their DNA. When there are too few of the species in an aquarium, the fish are stressed. This weakens their immune system and can cause other internal issues and lead to poor health. The fish usually respond to this stress by becoming more aggressive. Sometimes they do the opposite, and become so timid they literally waste away.

Byron.

 

[Essjay]

Byron, I am interested to read that your comment that zebra and leopard danios are different species. Seriously fish comments that leopard danios are a spotted morph of zebra danio and is Brachydanio rerio var. frankei rather than B. frankei.

Which is correct?

 

[Byron]

Byron, I am interested to read that your comment that zebra and leopard danios are different species. Seriously fish comments that leopard danios are a spotted morph of zebra danio and is Brachydanio rerio var. frankei rather than B. frankei.

Which is correct?

Thank you for pointing this out. This is what happens when I go from memory; the synonymy of "frankei" which I even included several years ago in my profile of the species on another site, slipped my mind.

It also appears that Brachydanio is no longer a valid genus but now considered synonymous with Danio so we are back to Danio rerio as the valid taxonomy of the Zebra Danio. This is according to no less than 25 individual scientific papers (California Academy of Sciences, Catalogue of Fishes). This does get referenced in the last of the "Notes" for this species on SF so that needs revising. I will check with Matt, if I can reach him.

Thanks again.
Byron.