Pregnant Zebra Danios?

[Super Dude]

I got 5 zebra danios in a 10 gallon. They are currently all alone, except for a few live plants. I noticed a couple of them are rounder than usual and not moving as much. They aren't flipping around like sick fish, they just seem content to stay in one spot. I got a breeding canister thing that floats on the water and isolates the parents from others. Do you think I should catch them and put them in the breeder? I would like to keep a few offspring and sell the others.

Thanks.

 

[indigoj]

more likely bloat as danios are egg layers.... They could be gravid females but try feeding them some cooked deshelled pea.

 

[frida]

Hi!
I'm a newbie to keeping fish at home but I work in a lab with zebra danios. Looking at the picture, I think the female is full of eggs. However, sometimes zebra danios just don't mate (and hence lay eggs) in large tanks. I think it's because in the wild they tend to breed in shallow waters. We tend to keep them in small tanks overnight (equal male to female ratio or more females) in shallow waters of about 15 centimeters deep and they tend to lay in the morning when the lights come on. I'm not sure what your breeding canister looks like but I'm guessing it's to prevent the parents eating the eggs? It's also nice to put some greenery in the breeding tank so that the female has somewhere to escape if she feels stressed out by over-amorous males. One thing to note is: putting fish into breeding tanks is fairly stressful for them so I'd leave 7 to 10 days before putting them in the breeding cage again if the first time is unsuccessful.
Another thing is that sometimes females get blocked (I know, it sounds horrible...) and it can help to gently caress their belly while you have caught them in a net but this is really stressful for the fish so I would do it as a last resort if none of the other suggestions work and the female gets bloated to dangerous looking levels.
I hope that helps,
Frida

 

[Super Dude]

yeah i couldn't tell which danio was a the pictured one today. i guess she dropped them somewhere in the aquarium, and somebody ate them.

the canister is about 15cm long by 7cm wide by 7cm high. it is ventilated and floats on the surface of the water. it has a grate at the bottom, which the eggs fall through that keeps them isolated from the parent.

so the next time i see this, i can just put her straight into the breeder?

thanks.

 

[frida]

Hi again,

I'd say yes, just put her in a breeder with a male next time you see it Good luck!

 

[helterskelter]

That fish is a female but far off spawning, they get much larger than that!!!

Also do not use a breeding trap. That would be like torcher to these very active fish.
When i spawned them in the past the smallest sized tank u would use in 18x12x12 inches
As these are very active when spawning, you u used a small trap the stress could easily kill them.

 

[frida]

Hmm... I guess how we cross our zebras in the lab is not always considered the most ethical, even if it's approved by the home office... Having said that, our danios usually live happily to a ripe old age. I have bred fish that look exactly like the one in the picture in the past and obtained 200+ eggs or so. I think how big they get depends from fish to fish. (especially as from Super Dude's comment about not finding that female anymore, she must have gotten rid of the load somehow!)

 

[helterskelter]

Personally I would not breed a fish that size, i would want the belly a little larger to ensure the eggs was ready.

Given a tank of 12x8x8 they would happily live in theat for 2-3 weeks but what i do to breed then is place a tri (2 males 1 female) in late and night, set the lights to come on for 7am and then first thing in the morning they will spawn.
It's commonly that just a change of tanks will induce spawning

I'm from a fish farming background as well, done over 10 years in farming.

 

[frida]

It seems like you have much more experience! It's good to learn some new things.

 

[helterskelter]

Your line of work sounds interesting you have to explain more some time would be intresting

 

[Mr.Hawk]

Hi!
I'm a newbie to keeping fish at home but I work in a lab with zebra danios. Looking at the picture, I think the female is full of eggs. However, sometimes zebra danios just don't mate (and hence lay eggs) in large tanks. I think it's because in the wild they tend to breed in shallow waters. We tend to keep them in small tanks overnight (equal male to female ratio or more females) in shallow waters of about 15 centimeters deep and they tend to lay in the morning when the lights come on. I'm not sure what your breeding canister looks like but I'm guessing it's to prevent the parents eating the eggs? It's also nice to put some greenery in the breeding tank so that the female has somewhere to escape if she feels stressed out by over-amorous males. One thing to note is: putting fish into breeding tanks is fairly stressful for them so I'd leave 7 to 10 days before putting them in the breeding cage again if the first time is unsuccessful.
Another thing is that sometimes females get blocked (I know, it sounds horrible...) and it can help to gently caress their belly while you have caught them in a net but this is really stressful for the fish so I would do it as a last resort if none of the other suggestions work and the female gets bloated to dangerous looking levels.
I hope that helps,
Frida

Thank you very much!
I did exactly everything you said.I seperated a couple in my tank(10cm deep) and my Zebra Danios spawned. But I have a big trouble: They ate every egg when the eggs were falling down from the female Zebra. At 6AM I got up and saw them spawning, I had breakfast and at 6.10(or 15 or 20, I'm not sure), there weren't any eggs in my tank.
Could you please tell my how you keep the eggs in your lab? I think in the lab, you must keep as many eggs as possible.How do you protect the eggs from their parents? Zebra Danio is my favourite fish.

 

[Mr.Hawk]

Can you help me please?

 

[Brookside]

request for Frida...

We have now first youngsters on Zebra Danio, a group of 30 adults was moved to breeding tank with goarse gravel on the bottom, adults were moved back to own tank after two days.
After 5 days a lot of tiny small zebras was swimming around but a great deal of them disappered.. we have now about 30 small ones, some of them are growing rapidly and some of them don't...

Question: what is the optimal feeding for these young ones? A Big Thanks if You can help..

 

[helterskelter]

Newly hatched Brine shrimp it a complete diet for them.

Liquafry #2 i think (may be #1) it's for egg layers,

Live foods are best as the moving action triggers the fry to feed better
Micro worms will also work
Rotafers

 

[Brookside]

thanks.

I do have micro worms... and that these are now getting, but thought it might be a little too big to eat for these tiny small ...