danios aren't eating and swimming frantically

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That tank isn't even 1 USG....you are upgrading soon?
That tank is just for 2 of them... Temporary until they eat properly. But yeah I'll be upgrading both the tanks soon (the main and the extra)
How big should it be for 5 danios?
 
Danios are very active swimmers, need alot of longitudinal space, 20G long is the smallest I'd keep them in...
 
Agreed. 20 gallons is absolute minimum for giant danio's and your current 'tank' is like trying to keep them in a puddle. I suggest you take them back to the shop if you can't rehouse them in a proper aquarium with a filter right away. Your current arrangement will never cycle, particularly without a filter and is not suitable for fish. Sorry, I don't mean to sound negative but that's the situation here!
 
Just realised, I don't know how big the main tank is but you imply that it's bigger than the one in the picture. If there are no signs of disease you don't need to isolate those two just because they aren't eating as well as the others. It's quite normal when fish have been stressed by a move so that's the likely issue. Moving again to a small bowl will probably make them less likely to eat. I can understand why you want to give them a chance to feed before the others eat all the food, but honestly you don't need to worry about that. They will eat when they're ready and seeing others eating will actually encourage them. With no filter though you will struggle to cycle the tank unless it's very large so they will only survive with daily water changes, which in itself will cause some stress.
 
Danios are very active swimmers, need alot of longitudinal space, 20G long is the smallest I'd keep them in...
So the min for5 of them is 20g long?
Isn't g gallon? Maybe you can give in cm/in? 😅
 
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Agreed. 20 gallons is absolute minimum for giant danio's and your current 'tank' is like trying to keep them in a puddle. I suggest you take them back to the shop if you can't rehouse them in a proper aquarium with a filter right away. Your current arrangement will never cycle, particularly without a filter and is not suitable for fish. Sorry, I don't mean to sound negative but that's the situation here!
They aren't giant danios though... They are zebra danios. Most are barely an inch long. If it really isn't that suitable, I'll just drop them in my cousin's tank till I get a more suitable one
Theirs is about a size of a TV haha (and all smaller sized fishes in the tank as well)
 
Just realised, I don't know how big the main tank is but you imply that it's bigger than the one in the picture. If there are no signs of disease you don't need to isolate those two just because they aren't eating as well as the others. It's quite normal when fish have been stressed by a move so that's the likely issue. Moving again to a small bowl will probably make them less likely to eat. I can understand why you want to give them a chance to feed before the others eat all the food, but honestly you don't need to worry about that. They will eat when they're ready and seeing others eating will actually encourage them. With no filter though you will struggle to cycle the tank unless it's very large so they will only survive with daily water changes, which in itself will cause some stress.
Main tank is just 5 gallons but I'll be buying a 7-8gallon one soon :(
I'll put them back with their friends then
I plan to change everything on February (and add filters and stuff) Hope that's ok 🥲
 
20g does mean 20 gallons. However, tanks can be shorter and deeper or longer and shallower but hold the same quantity of water. As exact dimensions aren't standard these tend to be expressed as 'long' for the shallower type and 'short' for the deeper type. For small active fish such as zebras, depth is less important than length, so a 20g 'long' is appropriate and isn't too far off the minimum quoted by Seriously Fish above.
Yes, your fish could probably survive in 6-10 gallons but that doesn't make it right. 5 or 6 gallons is pretty much only suitable for (say) a single Betta or perhaps a few tiny fish such as Endlers. 10 gallons is still very small but guppies and some of the very small tetras could possibly be considered.
I understand that space and cost may be an issue for you but ideally you should aim at 20 gallons as a minimum if you can otherwise you will be limited.
Sorry! I couldn't see the stripes in the pictures so I thought they were giant danio's rather than zebra's!
 
Active fish need longer tanks than sedate fish of the same size. Zebra danios are hyperactive and need a much longer tank than you'd think from the size of them. People who keep these fish in a 4 foot tank say they can cross from one side to the other in under a second.

A 20 gallon long tank is 30 inches long (according to a link SlapHppy7 gave me)
 
20g does mean 20 gallons. However, tanks can be shorter and deeper or longer and shallower but hold the same quantity of water. As exact dimensions aren't standard these tend to be expressed as 'long' for the shallower type and 'short' for the deeper type. For small active fish such as zebras, depth is less important than length, so a 20g 'long' is appropriate and isn't too far off the minimum quoted by Seriously Fish above.
Yes, your fish could probably survive in 6-10 gallons but that doesn't make it right. 5 or 6 gallons is pretty much only suitable for (say) a single Betta or perhaps a few tiny fish such as Endlers. 10 gallons is still very small but guppies and some of the very small tetras could possibly be considered.
I understand that space and cost may be an issue for you but ideally you should aim at 20 gallons as a minimum if you can otherwise you will be limited.
Sorry! I couldn't see the stripes in the pictures so I thought they were giant danio's rather than zebra's!
Hahaha no problem. Thanks for the specific info
 
First off, there probably wasn't a problem. You can feed them once a day (most people feed twice), and all my fish have a fast day once a week. Overfeeding is dangerous, especially in a tiny container like that.
Zebra danios need oxygen, so the filtration should move the water. As other have pointed out, they race in moving water (look at those racing stripes and torpedo shapes), so I figure a tank with about a 50cm front glass would be good. That would be my minimum - bigger would be better.
It gets confusing on an international site like this once we get into gallons instead of liters. I'm in Canada and since we get our aquarium equipment from the US, we tend to do water volume in gallons, but use cm and celsius. The British have different gallons than the US does, and we're somewhere in between.
I've learned google is useful to translate measurements with.
 

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