Pregnant Zebra Danio

[Yeeco]

i have reason to beleive one of my Zebra danios is pregnant. I have 3 of them in my 5 gallon tank. 2 of them are males (i think) and one is a female (based on her extremely large belly). I have a small 2 gallon tank that isnt set up at the moment. Should i just leave her in my 5 gallon or set up the 2 gallon and move her into that?

 

[starrynightxxi]

danios are egglayers, so while she may have eggs, she isn't pregnant. also, although they aren't big waste producers, they are very active fish, and shoolers, too (6+ for a proper school) so i would suggest upgrading that tank. 5 gallons really isn't big enough for them. i'd say probably 10 gallons as minimum (not sure on this, check the profile). A five gallon would be nice for a betta, or some other small, relatively inactive fish. Also there are some dwarf rasboras that you could set up nicely in a five gallon, but most common fish aren't going to do well in that tank.

Also, i read your post in tropical chit chat, and from the sounds of it, you JUST set the tank up. Is that right? if so i definately wouldn't suggest adding anything else to it because it is just starting to cyclng (check the pinned topics in the Beginner's FAQ)

 

[TammyLiz]

i have reason to beleive one of my Zebra danios is pregnant. I have 3 of them in my 5 gallon tank. 2 of them are males (i think) and one is a female (based on her extremely large belly). I have a small 2 gallon tank that isnt set up at the moment. Should i just leave her in my 5 gallon or set up the 2 gallon and move her into that?

She may be gravid (full of eggs), but she wouldn't be pregnant because danios are egglayers, not livebearers. If they do spawn, the males and females will need to be together so the eggs can be fertilized.

I've never done it with zebra danios before but I have with white clouds and I think its basically the same. If they are the only thing in your tank you already have the perfect setup with what is probably two males and a female. The only thing you're lacking is marbles on the bottom so the eggs can fall through them to where the parents can't eat them. After spawning remove the parents, and the eggs should hatch in a few days. Once the fry are free swimming you can start to feed them.

I was doing this about 8 years ago, by accident, and I was young, so don't take my advice on what to care for the fry. I had a pretty high die off rate so hopefully someone here has some better experience they can share with you on how to raise them.

If your tank is heavily planted and you don't feel like worrying about the eggs, you might end up with one or two fry just by doing nothing, but I'm not sure with zebra danios in particular. I know it can happen with whiteclouds.

EDIT: I walked away for a minute and I was beat to the reply . If starrynightxxi is right and you have just set this tank up without cycling now wouldn't be the time to start thinking of breeding. Just leave them in there for a couple of months like they are and do regular water changes. Add plants if you want to make them more comfortable. I recommend java fern as an excellent beginners plant.

 

[Yeeco]

thanks for the replys.. the only reason i got those fish in the first place was because i thought my tank was a 10 gallon..but while filling it i realized it was only a 5 and the tank was been up for about a week and a half

 

[starrynightxxi]

mm... it takes about a month for a tank to cycle fully with fish (more without), so you're still cycling. You'll want to keep an eye on it because the ammonia and nitrites are going to start rising so you'll have to do frequent water changes. If you get a test kit, that will help you judge when you need to do them during the cycling process, but afterwards once a week will be fine.

 

[Yeeco]

thanks for the info

i test it just about every other day and so far everything is going good

 

[Yeeco]

I was inspecting my tank yesterday and low and behold i saw lots of little fishes hiding amongst the gravel!

When i turned the light off they all came out and started swimming around and most of them got eaten.. i managed to save about 15 of them... so we'll see how it goes

 

[starrynightxxi]

congrats

 

[TammyLiz]

Where did you save them to, and what are you feeding them?

 

[Yeeco]

i have them in one of those little breeding box thingies and i am feeding them finely crushed flake food as instructed by pet store employee

 

[TammyLiz]

Thats interesting. Hope they're doing well. Out of curiosity, were they able to eat that crushed flake food? Could you see full tummies?

 

[Yeeco]

well..i dont really know.. before i went to check and they were gone.... the only thing i can figure is that they jumped out or somethin so....idk

 

[TammyLiz]

Thats too bad. Do you think they were small enough to get through the net?