Breeding Zebra Danios

[Jai85]

Hi all,

I've just started trying to breed my zebra danios, and i was wondering if anyone could give me any information on the subject, like the f2m ratio, temp, hardness, salinity, ph, etc.

At the moment i only have one female, and 5 males. I've separated the female and 3 of the males into a breeding net (ran out of tanks..).

Should i take out the males every morning? Should the female come out too? Will they get stressed from the constant changing of tanks? What size are the fry when they hatch? Will i be able to easily see them? And how long until i can put the fry back in the large tank with all the other fish?

I have an 185 litre tank where i keep most of the fish in (guppies, neons, danios, tetras, gouramis...), a 20 litre tank where i breed siamese fighters, and another 30 litre tank where i breed platies.

Thanks

Jai

[William]

The temp, hardness, salinity, ph, etc is not that important with this species as they breed very easily. Recommended f2m ratio 1f - 2-3m. I wouldn't use more than 2 males in a small breeding net.

I recommend that you keep the female seperated from the males for 2 weeks and to feed her well during that period. Once introduced to the male again she will likely spawn within 1-2 days. Sunlight helps trigger spawning.

[Lindsay_D]

We do it at school all the time...we used ten gallon tanks and put black trash bags over the tank for a good 18 hours with the lights off. Then we would rip the bags off and turn on the lights...

They would start to spawn imediatity. We made little plastic egg catchers (small tupperware with mesh netting and plastic aquatic plants). The zebra danios would spawn over the egg catchers and because of the mesh netting the parents could not eat the eggs.

Three days after they spawing the eggs hatch. It took us about 3 months to get the fry to be a reasonable size.

Hope that helps