What Does A Danio Ready To Lay Eggs Look Like?

[jmkgreen]

Obviously I'm new to this lark. I have a Zebra Danio who's white underbelly has become somewhat bloated over the past few days. I assume it's female, apart from minor size differences there's little to tell between the five of them in my tank.

My first fear was illness, but the rest of the body looks absolutely fine, eating and swimming well.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Never seen danio eggs personally but i have bred danios before in the past. In a community fish tank with little dense planting, there is little chance of any eggs or fry surviving as danios not only eat their own eggs but also their fry, and the fry are very tiny, so its very easy to miss them when they hatch. Do you have any male danios and how long has your tank been set up for?

 

[jmkgreen]

I doubt I have any eggs, I just have a Danio that looks like she might "pop" if you know what I mean. My dad took a look and instinctively thought she was full of eggs.

Sexing Danios is not easy. As I said I have five of them, LFS had no idea which they were and TBH they are all of slightly different sizes/shapes.

 

[The-Wolf]

Sexing Danios is not easy.

sexing zebra danios is very easy.
Females are more rounded, compaired to the males torpedo shape.

a picture is woth a thousand words

Female in foreground.

 

[max11180]

I have 6 Zebra's in one of my tanks.. along with 18 tiger barbs(various sizes), and 7 clown loach (only 2" as yet) in a 210L tank (about 46Gal) anyways, the wolf is spot on, danios are very easy to sex.. my females are much, much plumper than the males.. my males also seem a couple of shades darker, and more brown than white on the stripes don't know how common that is??.

Breeding them is no big issue..although i've never manged to find, let alone save any eggs! Every water change, the tiger barbs and danios go mad and turn the tank into an orgy! lol

Incidentally, after the water change and the "fun" begins.. the 3 biggest male barbs claim an area of tank each, and defend it from any other male. Any female that come into their teritory is then led to the plants and spawned with.. ironically, the Danios seem to do something similar, they seem to claim an area, and defend it from the other males, and let the females come and go as they please. I'd read they were group spawners, so i was suprisedwhen they started doing this.

It would be rather special if the clown loach did the same when the mature

 

[jmkgreen]

I think mine aren't yet mature. Was told by the LFS a few weeks back they were 6-8 months old but were very slow to grow.

No more than about an inch without tail. I can see a few of them getting fuller in the belly.

 

[max11180]

With any fish i've kept, them all seem to reach breeding maturity at about 1/2 their full adult size.. which in the case of zebra's... is going to be about 1", so your probably witnessing "the change" right in front of your eyes!

 

[RedStarCommie]

I have 6 Zebra Danios, being the amature that I am, i still cant tell how many are male or female.

They are very cute though.