Danio Breeding Experiment

[mikev]

I don't want to hijack the existing Zebra thread, but I'm seriously inspired by LL explanations and SkydiveSonic's success....


I want to try this, but in a slightly different way, since my setup is different: I have Bengals (or a Bengal/Giant hybrids) and the tank is heavily "loach-infested", so if there are eggs, they will be few.
Also, I have only 7 of these, and Wolf suspects that they may even be two breeds mixed,
so I need to maximize the chances.


Would the following approach make sense?

When cleaning, I'd usually change 3-4 buckets of water. Rather than keeping an entire bucket, I'll let the water settle in it, and then save the bottom 5%, including all the dirt.
Then put the these bottom samples in a glass jar, fill it with the tank water (to 2/3? -- leave some air?), and place the jar back into tank.
(close it tight? -- or perhaps cover it with fabric and let the water circulate a bit?)

Could this work, or there is a better way?

TIA.

 

[SkydiveSonic]

i'm interested in this approach as well. I might try this a few more times in the future if this is sucessful this time, and by then i'll have that betta in the new tank. I like your idea here

 

[mikev]

i'm interested in this approach as well. I might try this a few more times in the future if this is sucessful this time, and by then i'll have that betta in the new tank. I like your idea here

Thanks!

Unless someone smart like Wolf or LL says this is a bad idea, this is what I'll do. I'll toss a coin to decide between a sealed jar with air or covering with fabric, and we'll see what happens (next tank cleanup on Sat; but Tue we will see what happens.)

But I actually don't think this is going to work for me: I have many loaches that are constantly searching the ground, and the ground is sand, to make it easier for them.

I'm very interested in what happens with your experiment, in particular, if all of your fries are going to turn out Zebras...

 

[SkydiveSonic]

I'd probably be inclined to go with a really fine mesh over the top, but that's just me .....

 

[SkydiveSonic]

Just wondering how your experiment is going? Any luck? I've definatly got 8 fry in mine, and they seem to be getting bigger. I need to gravel vac, but i'm a little scared of sucking the fry up ..... Just changing the water with a glass at the mo.

 

[mikev]

Just wondering how your experiment is going? Any luck? I've definatly got 8 fry in mine, and they seem to be getting bigger. I need to gravel vac, but i'm a little scared of sucking the fry up ..... Just changing the water with a glass at the mo.

Thank you for asking...

Looks like a total failure on my end.

Nothing shows up out after 2 days, and I kind of expected it: I've carefully examined the residue in the dirty water (under a magn. glass) and saw nothing but poop. Not even small pieces of leftover food, which means that they clean up really well. Same results in the other tank which had no danios but barbs and rasboras, and *theoretically* these also could drop a few eggs.

Two things that are going against me are:

1. My Danios are Bengals, not Zebras. They are probably less prolific. Also, mine are young, they are probably sexually mature, but only recently so.

2. With 15 botias in the tank (+ khulis) always ready and looking for more food, nothing edible will stay on the ground for long.

I'll give it two more days and then throw out the water.

I'm pretty much convinced that this will not work, but if you or anyone have any suggestions on how to improve the chances a bit, I'll try again.

===

Best of luck with your fry, please keep us informed.

Q: Do you really need to clean the water in the fry container? You are not likely accumulating nitrates much.

 

[SkydiveSonic]

That kinda sucks. Maybe it's best to clean the water at about 9am cos the fish spawn at first light? i think i changed my water at about 10am originally ....

I like to change the water on a regular basis because even though the fish aren't putting out a lot of waste, the fry food i use which is egg based leaves a lot of visible stuff in the water and it can get quite cloudy in there .... Doesn't hurt to change the water anyway

 

[mikev]

Sucks big time, agree.

I don't think I have any chance unless I can catch them spawning (never saw them doing it yet) and quickly find and remove the eggs.

Let me explain what my loaches do: some of them simply search the ground, all the time. This is ok, because maybe an egg would drop between stones. Now, some of them (black khulis) squeeze between the stones to find small pieces of flakes there. And some of them (clowns) actually move the stones around to really make sure there is nothing edible.

I was looking for small flake fragments in the dirt to see if they do a perfect job -- well, they do.

And it is not like I'm not feeding them enough already....

There is one thing I can still try: dump a lot of pellets in...maybe they will stop searching for a day. The problem is that I will not be able to clean since my clowns have a new nasty habit of carrying the food to their hiding places...like hamsters... Probably a very bad idea, but I may try this *if I actually detect them spawning*.

Big Yuck.

,,,,,,

Got you on changing water.