HELP Look at my pics!!

[Clairel]

I am very new to all of this fish keeping but have been reading up ALOT, and i noticed today one of my 6 Zebra Daino's tummy is growing, and she appears to have a black spot in her tummy, is this poo? or she pregnant?

I have also read to move the female and male into a seperate tank etc.. but i have 6 of these , and dont know which is male or female...

I have enclosed some pictures of her, im sorry they are not very good, on one of them she is next to another zebra danio, with NO fat belly, dont know if this is male or not.. All of my other zebra daino's appear quite slim apart from maybe another one, maybe she is pregnant too? But her tummy is not as big as this one, also i have noticed she is nugding them out of her way !

Please any help would be most appreciated

Thanx Claire xx

 

[Lateral Line]

Danios are egglayers, so she is not pregnant in the strictest sense. It is quite normal for female egglayers to be deeper in the body viewed from the side and noticeably wider from the front or above.

Zebra Danios almost constantly scatter eggs which are fertilised externally by the males which chase the females around all the time. The eggs will be eaten unless special care is taken.

 

[Clairel]

What do i need to do then, move her? How do i know which male to take? Or how to sex them? I have 6 in total, but dont know which are f or m, what conditions do i put them in another tank, plants etc??

Claire xx

 

[pica_nuttalli]

you really shouldn't attempt to breed and raise fry unless you have a definite plan of what you will do with the results.

 

[Lateral Line]

You have to have both a male and female, otherwise the eggs will not be fertilised. Danios are very fond of their own caviar, so it is best to seperate the breeders, indeed, it is best to hold male and females seperately for a period before the breeding cycle, it allows the females a chance to get really full of eggs.

The breeding tank need not be large. The more low plants you have the more cover you will give for the scattered eggs. Put the selected female in the day before, and the male in at lights out - you want them to go straight "to sleep". They rarely fail to spawn at first light. Watch them, as soon as they stop and start looking for eggs, remove both.

The eggs hatch in about 24 hours, but the fry live from their egg sacks for the first few days. As soon as they are free swimming, feed with a commercial fry food.

As always, keep your water parameters up, fry are more delicate then their parents. A well matured sponge filter will be a useful addition in this regard.

 

[Clairel]

Hi thanx alot, it appears from just looking i have 4 females and 2 males.

I dont know if they are full of eggs or not, i just noticed there tummy's are slightly bigger, with a black dot in there, which could be poo i suppose? I have no real plan of breeding anything yet, as i am a novice, i am up for new things, and learning, but i will see how it goes, and see how they look..

Thanx for the advice peeps

Claire x

 

[Barracuda518]

Did you feed them not too long before you took those pictures? Danios will eat every bit of food they can get. The female will look pregnant, but is actually just full of food. Mine look like just like that after feeding. I have 7 in my tank...

Good Luck B)