Need Some Breeding Help

[mikev]

Hi All,

I need some good ideas on a strategy of spawning Danio Hikari's.

The initial attempt (separate the sexes for about a week, feed them well, improve water quality, drop pH, put them together, marbles, lowered water level) failed to produce any results. It is not clear if they even spawned, at least I have not seen anything that looked like it. No fry either.

I have no problem with D.Rerio's and large number of fry from repeated spawns consume ever increasing space, but these chaps are different. (well, I do have a problem with them too..stopping them from spawning all the time.. )

Firstly, they are less active than Zebra's under the best conditions, and I've seen very little chasing in the years I kept them.
Secondly, they are old, likely 4 years+ and their appearance attests to the age (yeah, I should have done this earlier); this does not help much.

I still very much would like to get at least some fry out of them....... good ideas for a strategy would be welcome. I used all the fish available in this try (2m/2f).

Possible errors on my part:
1. The fish clearly was unhappy about being moved from their heavily planted tank into the bare breeding tank, and only now, 3 weeks later, is getting less scared.
2. The tank too small (10g partitioned into 2 halves)? -- the fish is a bit larger than zebra's (2")
3. I might have kept them in the spawning partition too long (4 days) so possibly some fry did hatch and got eaten. (But with these chaps being so much less active than other danios and having much less appetite as well, I'm not even sure they would eat fry...)

The core issue still feels to be their lack of enthusiasm....

Thanks to Colin and TheWolf for their help given already....more is needed.

TIA

 

[Lateral Line]

When segregated, did the females obviously take weight on? I presume the heavily planted is home to others so attempting a spawning in there is out of the question? It certainly sounds like they're bothered by the surroundings.

I'd segregate again, perhaps for a bit longer, 14+days, with a good feeding regime. Put them back into the breeding tank but kit the tank out with some plants, several clumps of fine leaved stuff, a couple of large leaved Crypts, whatever you have to hand, maybe some breeding mops or Hornwort on the surface, that should cover most angles. Introduce the females in the morning the day before so they get used to the place, and the males last thing in the evening and cover the tank so that it is dark. In the morning, take the cover off slowly and watch.

If nothing, try sprinkling cold RO water onto the surface, enough to drop the temperature a couple of degrees, then turn the heater up a couple of degrees so that after that the temperature climbs higher then it was before. That sometimes works with stubborn Cyprinids.

I've never bred this species.

 

[mikev]

Thanks, LL,

Their home tank is not going to work -- other Danios and loaches (including Schistura's who are pretty good about egg/fry extermination) on the bottom. Nothing gets born there and I saw other fish spawning in it...zilch.

I did not see any weight gain. TBH, I'm not positive which are the females: according to Danios.Info, blues are the females, but my yellows are larger and more female-looking; in any case neither color showed weight gain. That they eat very little comparing to D.Rerio's does not help either. I wish I could find something they really like: their reaction to things that drive D.Rerio's nuts (bloodworms, decap, baby foods, newhatched shrimp...) is not enthusiastic at all.....

(Danios.Info also says that breeding them is easy...this is irritating to know...)

I'll try your ideas: longer separation, more plants, keeping them in the dark and seeing what they will do, except that let me not move the fish: they really take long time to minimally adjust, and I'm afraid to kill them by moving them around. Instead, I'll keep them all in this tank separated by a partition, and in two weeks remove the partition.

 

[mikev]

I do wish they were like Zebra's..yesterday night I extracted another twenty newborns from their tank, and another ten this morning. No conditioning, no fish separation, no special foods, no nothing....

Anyway, Hikari's finally -- for the first time in the new tank -- got into chasing each other yesterday. I gave them some live tubifex worms (yes, I know the dangers), and these were eaten with enthusiasm, then they got back into chasing. Maybe they are not too old yet....
They *might* have spawned: the females today show clear aversion to the males and try to hide from them.

Now, what is the smart thing to do? Right now, the fish is in one of the partitions in a 10g. Maybe I should just leave them there, and watch for fry to appear in the other partition? (This is how Rerio breeds).

I can move them all to the other partition...don't know if this matters.

I can also separate them but this will result in danios in both partitions, and no fry from whatever they might have done yesterday.

Any idea what might the be the hatch time for this species? (78F)

 

[Lateral Line]

I'd move them all. If they have spawned, the fry from any surviving eggs will be hatching in 24 hours and will be eaten.

Female danios, and most Cyprinids let's face it, fatten noticeably in the absence of males and in good conditions. That is somewhat odd.

Reports that the fish is "easy", yeah, okay. I wonder how many of those reports are derived from experience or copying from other "reliable" web sites? I had all kinds of problems with some species that were flagged as easy or at least not impossible, yet they steadfastly refused to breed. If something that is "easy" doesn't do the biz with regular techniques, then I tend to worry about the source.

 

[mikev]

U-hu. Moved them. Fingers very much crossed.

As for fattening....It may be that I don't have a good eye for this type of fish....or maybe because they eat really little comparing to Zebra's. Anyway, here is how they look like



The yellow one on top is I now think is a male; they are larger and fatter (but they do the chasing)... The lateral stripe fading in the middle seems to be an age sign. I covered the tank with water sprite.this seems to make them more comfortable.

Now, we'll see...

Thanks...

 

[mikev]

Zilch so far.... I guess I give them more time....
(and of course no from Hikari is "compensated" by another seven Rerio's..these hatch almost daily now. )