Can I Put A Pregnant Zebra Danio With Young Neon Tetra

[seabear]

I just got 10 small neon tetra about half inch in size (sadly one died yesterday), and I am putting them in a 2.5g tank with some small plants and use dark paper to wrap around 2.5 sides of the tank so they don't get too stress. I also have a zebra danio is pregnant, as her stomach is getting pretty big I want take her out from the big tank and put her with neon tetra. Is it ok if I do that or it's a bad idea, they will end up killing my little neon tetra? I am new to breeding, please give me some advice. Thanks in advance

 

[Man of fish]

2.5 gallons is no where near enough apace for any fish really. Maybe a betta but I that's bear minimum. Neons need at least 10 gallons. And no the danio would become VERY stressed in the 2.5 gallons possibly to the point of death. What size is your main tank?

 

[seabear]

The 2.5 gallons tank was for treating sick fish before, my main tank is 45 gallons. I didn't put the neons in the main tank because I have a 5 inch silver dollar in there, even it doesn't really bother other fishes but sometimes he mistaken my platy as flake and gets very near to take a bite on them...
I have no room to put another 10g tank in my place, so I guess I have to leave the danio in there.

 

[onidrase]

Danios don't get pregnant. (they're not livebearers.) They lay eggs, and have to have a male fertilize them. (I believe the males build bubble nests, but I'm no expert on that subject.) So unless you're trying to cross breed your danio with neon tetras (which is impossible, mind you) there'd be no point in moving it away from the other danios. If your danio looks really bloated, I'd think it might be constipated or have internal parasites before I'd think about breeding.

 

[seabear]

Sorry, I am not familiar with the terms and breeding, I did see the male and female spawning few days ago, now the female's stomach is pretty big. They are very active so I thought she is going to lay eggs soon. I guess I will leave them the way it is since I don't really have another tank to let them lay eggs. Thanks for answering my stupid questions

 

[onidrase]

Sorry, I am not familiar with the terms and breeding, I did see the male and female spawning few days ago, now the female's stomach is pretty big. They are very active so I thought she is going to lay eggs soon. I guess I will leave them the way it is since I don't really have another tank to let them lay eggs. Thanks for answering my stupid questions

From what I understand, the danios may have been jousting, rather than spawning (jousting is what danios tend to do to sort out a pecking order amongst each other). The female actually lays the eggs before any real spawning happenings begin, from what I understand.

I also don't think they get really freaking huge before spawning, but they might, cause they do lay a lot of eggs. Keep a close eye on her, if she continues to fatten up without any egg laying occurring, feed her some de shelled crushed peas to help her with digestion, as she might be constipated.

If that fails, keep a close eye on her waste, if her poo is white and stringy, you may have a parasite problem on your hand. I'm gonna urge you to get some pics on the Cyprinids, Characins, and Atherinids part of the forums, and ask about your danio there. If you're more convinced that you've got parasites, jump to the Tropical Fish Emergencies section.

If you're only keeping one male and one female, I'd urge you to up the group to at least 6, which shouldn't be hard, as they're very commonly available and pretty cheap, at that. They'd appreciate the bigger school, and will be much happier and more active.

 

[onidrase]

In regards to your nippy silver dollar, silver dollars are vegetarian, so I don't think they would be trying to eat your fish. However, they are kinda nippy at times, so it's more of the silver dollar picking on your fish, rather than trying to eat them. They are schooling fish as well, so adding more may disperse aggression, but since I've never kept silver dollars (they're big, skittish, plant eating dull fish, don't really suit my fancy ) I can't confirm or deny if adding more silver dollars would help or not. It usually does with semi aggressive schooling fish.

I think your neon tetras would be fine in your main tank, if you could give me a stocking list, though, I'd love to make sure. However, man of fish is right in saying 2.5 gallons is a bit small for a school of neons. With a tank that size, I'd throw in a nice betta and some shrimp of sorts.

 

[seabear]

Thanks for the long explanation Oni. It seems to be more complicated than I thought
Let me keep an eye on her, hope she is not having any problems...
I do have 6 of them, 2 male and 4 female, and I have 5 guppies, 3 platy, 4 cory, 3 algae eaters and 2 silver dollars in the 45g tank, they look active and happy to me (hope I am right )

 

[onidrase]

All I can say is you might want to get 2 more cories, and I'd be careful with the algae eaters, depending on what kind it is. There are plenty of algae eaters out there, plecos, otos, sucking loaches to name a few. But chinese algae eaters (sold under many names, sometimes just "algae eater" or "golden sucking loach" or the like) get large and aggressive as they grow, and may develop a taste for its tank mate's eyes and slime coats rather than algae, and once they get hooked on it, there isn't a way to stop them, and it'd honestly best to euthanize imo once they get to that point.

If the neon tetras are no smaller than the danios, they should be alright. If they're tiny tiny, they may be mistaken for food. If you let them grow out a bit, though, I think they'd be safe in the main tank, and would appreciate being there too

 

[seabear]

In regards to your nippy silver dollar, silver dollars are vegetarian, so I don't think they would be trying to eat your fish. However, they are kinda nippy at times, so it's more of the silver dollar picking on your fish, rather than trying to eat them. They are schooling fish as well, so adding more may disperse aggression, but since I've never kept silver dollars (they're big, skittish, plant eating dull fish, don't really suit my fancy ) I can't confirm or deny if adding more silver dollars would help or not. It usually does with semi aggressive schooling fish.

I think your neon tetras would be fine in your main tank, if you could give me a stocking list, though, I'd love to make sure. However, man of fish is right in saying 2.5 gallons is a bit small for a school of neons. With a tank that size, I'd throw in a nice betta and some shrimp of sorts.

Oh no, i definitely don't want more silver dollar... When I got them 10 years ago I didn't know anything about them at all, I was like a kid picking a toy that I like and then brought them home. Now I can't put any plants in my tank because of them, I wanted to give them away but my wife feels that we should raise them till their day comes (10 yrs should be about time).

 

[onidrase]

In regards to your nippy silver dollar, silver dollars are vegetarian, so I don't think they would be trying to eat your fish. However, they are kinda nippy at times, so it's more of the silver dollar picking on your fish, rather than trying to eat them. They are schooling fish as well, so adding more may disperse aggression, but since I've never kept silver dollars (they're big, skittish, plant eating dull fish, don't really suit my fancy ) I can't confirm or deny if adding more silver dollars would help or not. It usually does with semi aggressive schooling fish.

I think your neon tetras would be fine in your main tank, if you could give me a stocking list, though, I'd love to make sure. However, man of fish is right in saying 2.5 gallons is a bit small for a school of neons. With a tank that size, I'd throw in a nice betta and some shrimp of sorts.

Oh no, i definitely don't want more silver dollar... When I got them 10 years ago I didn't know anything about them at all, I was like a kid picking a toy that I like and then brought them home. Now I can't put any plants in my tank because of them, I wanted to give them away but my wife feels that we should raise them till their day comes (10 yrs should be about time).

Ahh, yeah, they should be nearing that time, they do live a long time, though. Must have taken good care of them to keep them around that long

You could -try- having anubias and java fern in the tank, but no guarentees. those two in particular are the main plants that tend to be able to live in a tank full of plant eating monsters, as they have very thick (and I believe not so delicious) leaves.

 

[seabear]

oh boy you got me again, I do have chinese algae eaters
and 2 of them are big already, so far they are still sucking on algae only, hope they keep it that way.
the neon tetras are less than half of the danio size, I think I will keep them in the small tank for a week then let them in the main tank.

 

[onidrase]

oh boy you got me again, I do have chinese algae eaters
and 2 of them are big already, so far they are still sucking on algae only, hope they keep it that way.
the neon tetras are less than half of the danio size, I think I will keep them in the small tank for a week then let them in the main tank.

Alright, keep a close eye on those guys, and if you start noticing any circular types of injuries on your fish, remove them. There's no way to keep them from sucking on other fish after they start it, but they'll be fine up until then. I'd recommend a BN pleco or two for that tank if you want an algae eater, though they're pretty messy, and I'm sure the plants alone would help algae more than algae eaters would. (once your silver dollars pass, anyways, not to be morbid or anything )

Those are some tiny neons, as well. Once they get closer to the danios size, pop them in the main tank, and with the 2.5g, either toss it in storage for a hospital tank in case of emergency, or you can turn it into a nice betta fish setup not much else you can do with it, unfortunately.

 

[seabear]

Thanks for all the advice
I used to just buy the fish put them in a tank feed them all with flakes, change water once a week (Sometimes in 2,3 weeks if I am lazy )
After I went in here and read some threads I realize there are lots of things I need to know about fishes, it's not just to keep them alive but to provide them a healthy and happy environment