Celestial Pearl Danio - Thinking Of Breeding Some.

[DevUK]

Ok. I have a 27 litre tank cycling at the moment, and I'd been looking at what to stock it with. I thought I'd got it down to either a small group of pygmy cories, or a dwarf puffer. Now, having seen some celestial pearl danios at my LFS I feel that I would *really* like some. Only thing is, if I had some, I feel obliged to try to breed them, due to their over fishing and low wild stocks

So, this is my setup and my plan! As I say, the tank is a 27 litre Aqua 40. I've read on another forum about a guy using the same tank and keeping 8 of these little fellas. I feel thats possibly a few too many, so I was thinking of a group of 5. Maybe 2 males and 3 females? Perhaps only 1 male would be better?

The tank has some grassy plants, and I'm going to put in a good ammount of java moss for them to spawn in. I'm using an external filter with a spray bar (see my thread on the nano filter I just got from hong kong!) Currently I have some small gravel down, but I'm going to top this with some fine sand. I think it will look nicer, and I've read it may be better (but not necessary).

Planning to keep the temperature at about 24 deg C, but may go colder as again, I've read they seem to spawn fine in lower temps of about 20+ deg C.

Can anyone see any problems with this setup? Any suggestions or comments welcomed

 

[fishbone]

I would go with two males and 3-4 females. My temp is a constant 24C but they will breed at 26C, no need to lower the temperture. plenty of java moss is a good idea as this seems to be where they spawn. Lots of plants right to the front of the tank for cover. Feed plenty of frozen or live daphnia, bbs or any other live/frozen food to encourage breeding. Wait a couple of months then start looking out for fry. You'll need liquifry or similar as the babies are tiny. Mine are just over a week old and I've now started feeding microworms and freshly hatched bbs. They do seem to prefer/feel safer in large groups. I have 17 in a 15G well planted tank.
Check out this site
http/www.celestialpearldanio.com

 

[Amerce]

The tank has some grassy plants, and I'm going to put in a good ammount of java moss for them to spawn in. I'm using an external filter with a spray bar (see my thread on the nano filter I just got from hong kong!) Currently I have some small gravel down, but I'm going to top this with some fine sand. I think it will look nicer, and I've read it may be better (but not necessary).

The external filter will need to have a sponge placed over the intake to ensure that the fry aren't sucked in, I have that on all my external filters as I found a cory fry that had been sucked into the tank and quite merrily swimming around in the dark by itself

Otherwise everything sounds OK, also if you can't get a lot of floating plants use some breeding mops as per killi breeding they seem to work just as well so if you want to collect the eggs and try to hatch them away from the parents all you have to do is lift the mops out and pick the eggs off.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

for such small fish they are fiesty little buggers, to dissipate aggression get the biggest group your comfortable with in your tank. I've got 5 and I wish I had got closer to 8-10

 

[iSnail]

Otherwise everything sounds OK, also if you can't get a lot of floating plants use some breeding mops as per killi breeding they seem to work just as well so if you want to collect the eggs and try to hatch them away from the parents all you have to do is lift the mops out and pick the eggs off.

Aren't Galaxies egg scatterers i.e. eggs won't stick to breeding mops.... ??

 

[Maximumbob]

info:

CPD article

The best CPD thread ever!

Breeding thread

Whilst linking to other boards is against rules, I hope the mods will leave this one in as serious/senior breeding guys are communicating from all over the world in this thread. The information is priceless. To give you an idea.. the thread has been viewed nearly 34 thousand times and is 39 pages long!

There are several articles in PFK web page which are useful.. a simple search for celestial should find them easy. Some of the articles are found in this wiki.

My CPD's are settled in and in good condition. My breeding tank is ready and I'll be trying over the next few weeks. Wish me luck!

 

[DevUK]

I would go with two males and 3-4 females. My temp is a constant 24C but they will breed at 26C, no need to lower the temperture. plenty of java moss is a good idea as this seems to be where they spawn. Lots of plants right to the front of the tank for cover. Feed plenty of frozen or live daphnia, bbs or any other live/frozen food to encourage breeding. Wait a couple of months then start looking out for fry. You'll need liquifry or similar as the babies are tiny. Mine are just over a week old and I've now started feeding microworms and freshly hatched bbs. They do seem to prefer/feel safer in large groups. I have 17 in a 15G well planted tank.
Check out this site
http/www.celestialpearldanio.com

Cool ok, my temp seems to be up and down a bit at the moment, think I might look at a new heater as the one I have seems a little inconsistent (and bulky!) Do you raise the brine shrimp yourself? Its something I've thought about in the past, but never gotten around to doing, so I haven't really read up much on that.

The external filter will need to have a sponge placed over the intake to ensure that the fry aren't sucked in, I have that on all my external filters as I found a cory fry that had been sucked into the tank and quite merrily swimming around in the dark by itself

Otherwise everything sounds OK, also if you can't get a lot of floating plants use some breeding mops as per killi breeding they seem to work just as well so if you want to collect the eggs and try to hatch them away from the parents all you have to do is lift the mops out and pick the eggs off.

Good plan on the sponge cover. I had been thinking about adding a fine net over the intake, ie nylon stocking May look at sponge instead if it saves me going out and buying tights (No GF to do it for me *tiny violin* )

I have some duck weed, but I might opt for amazon frogbit or something with a larger leafe than duck weed. I'll have to try to reduce the flow from my filter some more (its not that strong though).

for such small fish they are fiesty little buggers, to dissipate aggression get the biggest group your comfortable with in your tank. I've got 5 and I wish I had got closer to 8-10

Oh cool. I'd love to have more, but didn't want to over stock. Perhaps I'll try to go for 8, 3 males and 5 females? Tank dimensions are 33cm L x 30cm D x 37 cm H giving 27 litres/7 US gal. If the general concensus is that 8 would be happy in this sized tank then thats what I'll go for

I really can't wait to try this now! Should have some Java moss arriving tomorrow (Thanks SmithRC!), got the sand in last night and used up the last of my taiwan moss on the bogwood, re-planted all of the parvula grassy stuff into smaller clumps and fiddled some more with the filter position (still not right).

I'll perhaps take some pics in the next few days, when I retrieve my camera from my parents house

Ooh, one last question. I seem to have a lot of snails in this tank. They came in on some plants I stored in this tank while I was setting up another Will they eat eggs should the danios spawn or is it safe to leave them in there?

Thanks for all the advice so far guys

Steve.

 

[fishbone]

I wouldn't bother with the floating plants, I've removed what I had in the tank as the fry are just not interested in it. They are egg scatterers so I've not tried removing eggs, besides which, I've not actually seen the eggs! One very good point is NOT to gravel vac if you suspect there are eggs as they can easily fall through the java moss and be lying in the gravel.
I've got loads of little snail in the tank which came in on plants, but they don't seem to be a problem. I pick the obvious ones out when I do water change, but otherwise I leave them be to eat any algea.

 

[DevUK]

I wouldn't bother with the floating plants, I've removed what I had in the tank as the fry are just not interested in it. They are egg scatterers so I've not tried removing eggs, besides which, I've not actually seen the eggs! One very good point is NOT to gravel vac if you suspect there are eggs as they can easily fall through the java moss and be lying in the gravel.
I've got loads of little snail in the tank which came in on plants, but they don't seem to be a problem. I pick the obvious ones out when I do water change, but otherwise I leave them be to eat any algea.

Thanks for the info I think I have about 20 or more now! I keep seeing more every time I look at the tank I noticed some eggs today too, so they'll be comming out tonight.

Still, they do seem to be going nuts on the glass, chomping away...

 

[chr15_8]

sounds ok to me

however as said before put a sponge over your filter intake or use some tights/pantyhose

i have 12 in a 15 uk gallon tank ive now got 16 little babies in the fry tank

i dont do a water change on my tank except the filling up from evaporation
the main reason is because of eggs and fry if you use a vac then theres a good chance of getting the eggs it you take it from the top of the tank you might get a fry which you didnt see my waters at 22c

as said theres a forum thats only about galaxy rasbora's

think you could get away with about 8/9 of them

just out of intrest where about are you in the uk?

chris

 

[DevUK]

just out of intrest where about are you in the uk?

chris

Coventry, west mids