Tokis Phoenix, thanks. Does that mean that a breeding net isn't good and if not will the other fish eat the eggs/fry? Maggie
Zebra danio's will not breed in a breeding net and i expect it would be extremely difficult to successfully raise the fry in one too. To give the fry the best chances of survival (taking the other notes into consideration like fine but dense planting and large open spaces), remove the adults from the tank after they have spent at least a week in the tank courting with each other.
The first time i bred danio's it was actually by accident, i was establishing a 10gal with a couple of pearl danio's (very similar to zebra and leopard danio's, just grow a bit bigger and have different coloration). The heater was not doing a good job at heating the 10gal and the temp was around 22 to 23 degree's warm.
About a week after the danio's had been in the tank, i noticed they were showing breeding behavior, but didn't really think anything of it. After a little while i removed the adult danio's from the tank as i decided i did not need the 10gal set up, but left the tank running empty for a couple of days anyway.
A couple of days later, i was beginning to empty the tank and noticed there was a lot of movement at the bottom- to my shock there were hundreds of pearl danio fry
! So i decided to raise the danio fry, by at first feeding them liquifry, then powdered fry foods, and then by moving them onto adult fish foods. Danio fry are absolutely TINY, they are also quiet transparent looking as well and rather thin but long looking fry body shape wise.
Danio's usually produce very large quantities of fry, often over a hundred in my experience, however most of these fry will die during the time it takes to raise them to adulthood as they are very sensitive and not very hardy at all as far as fry go- its quite normal for only a small percentage of the fry to survive, so you shouldn't have to worry about having to raise hundreds of danio's
. It was imposible to tell how many fry i had exactly in my first batch, but there were probably over a hundred, by the time they were full grown (1 year old) i had over 20 healthy and strong survivers.
Regular small water changes are essential in getting the danio's to spawn successfully and produce healthy eggs and fry. Danio's will eat their eggs and fry which is why the planting where they lay their eggs in has to be dense and why the adults should be removed before or after the fyr have hatched.
When i look back at it now, i gave my danio's the perfect conditions to spawn and produce fry- cool temperature tank (although a tank larger than 10gals would have probably been better) with regular water changes, fine but dense planting in the corners but large open spaces in the middle section, and removal of adults after spawning
.
