Danio's spawning!!

[Willyleigh]

I just looked at my Zebra Danios and noticed the males chasing the biggest female around. I thought that they were spawning so I watched for a while and I saw them spawn three times, the males looked like they were chasing her too fast to fertilize the eggs. Besides the eggs were all eaten before they hit the floor by my galaxy rasboras and on the floor by my Yoyo loaches.

I don't think I'll get any babies but its nice to know that my fish are happy enough to spawn.

[jeffs99dime]

I just looked at my Zebra Danios and noticed the males chasing the biggest female around. I thought that they were spawning so I watched for a while and I saw them spawn three times, the males looked like they were chasing her too fast to fertilize the eggs. Besides the eggs were all eaten before they hit the floor by my galaxy rasboras and on the floor by my Yoyo loaches.

I don't think I'll get any babies but its nice to know that my fish are happy enough to spawn.

that's good!

[sergo]

cool and not cool, i guess.

[gm72]

Maybe you could move them to another tank so you can reap the rewards of their...umm...activities?

[Lady Hobbs]

I have no idea how they spawn! They move too fast to even watch. My eyes would be somewhere in the back of my head trying to watch them. I do see several of mine always chasing one, tho.

[gm72]

LOL! Is this like the sitcom/movie/whatever where the wife asks the husband: "Ummm, that was IT?"

[hungryhound]

It's amazing how efficient zebrafish are!

My gut feeling is that you'll continue to see this activity, but unless you have some way to prevent the parents from eating the eggs (they'll eat them as fast as they lay them), you'll probably not see too many fry (though this could be a good thing as zebrafish are like the aquatic rabbit!).

Congrats on the spawning though:)

[gm72]

Lady Hobbs, you got ripped off if you had to say that in real life! You should have demanded a refund! LOL! You want I should break his legs for ya'?

Seriously though, I think it would be great to be able to capture the dannio eggs and let them hatch, but given their speed I'm not confident that such an action is possible.

[hungryhound]

Lady Hobbs, you got ripped off if you had to say that in real life! You should have demanded a refund! LOL! You want I should break his legs for ya'?

Seriously though, I think it would be great to be able to capture the danio eggs and let them hatch, but given their speed I'm not confident that such an action is possible.

Actually I'll throw out an idea for you to think about......that is if you're up for a DYI.

You can make your own spawning tank.....the design would be that the parents are in the top portion with a mesh grate below them through which the eggs can drop (what I'm thinking of is an insert that can be suspended in a tank). This will allow you to transfer several fish (I'd try and keep a fairly balanced sex ratio) to the spawning tank whenever you want. This keeps the parents away from the eggs and allows you to collect them and raise them separately.

I will warn you though, these little buggers are really small and will hatch 24-72 hours post fertilization!!

[gm72]

I love DIY projects. That is a great idea!

[hungryhound]

I love DIY projects. That is a great idea!

Thanks :41: , hopefully someone can picture what I was trying to describe.

[gm72]

You could actually do a funnel with light plexiglass with a hole at the bottom to allow the eggs to go through. Or a plexiglass plate with many holes drilled in it. Easy to suspend.

[Lady Hobbs]

I started watching my danio's today after reading your post. I have the same thing here and it looks like I only have 2 females being totally terrorized by about 8 males. The females are more silver/blue and the males more tan/blue. I never noticed that before, either, but I don't pay much attention to them usually. They are just dither fish for my angels but I have to admit, I feel rather sorry for those females.

[gm72]

Poor girls. What kind of dannios are they, Lady?

[hungryhound]

I started watching my danio's today after reading your post. I have the same thing here and it looks like I only have 2 females being totally terrorized by about 8 males. The females are more silver/blue and the males more tan/blue. I never noticed that before, either, but I don't pay much attention to them usually. They are just dither fish for my angels but I have to admit, I feel rather sorry for those females.

Yea....the chasing is why we normally try and keep a fairly balanced number of males and females together....

[Lady Hobbs]

The zebra and I can't stand them. I love the long tail danio's however. Not so wild and a purplish/blue color.

[Lady Hobbs]

Yea....the chasing is why we normally try and keep a fairly balanced number of males and females together....

On danio's who can tell?

[gm72]

Lift up their fins and inspect? LOL, just kidding. Long fins are beautiful, I just love them.

[Willyleigh]

On danio's who can tell?
Females are ALOT fatter than males, I have 3 females 2 males

[crackatinny]

Females are ALOT fatter than males, I have 3 females 2 males

How about a pic, so you can show us which is which?

[Willyleigh]

How about a pic, so you can show us which is which?
i'll take one when I get home

[hungryhound]

On danio's who can tell?

It's not to hard to sex them when you've stared at enough of them. Males do tend to have a more slender body than females, but their is also a slight color difference. Males usually have gold/yellow on their belly, ventral fin, pelvic fins and pectoral fins. Females, tend to have more of a white belly. Also, under stressful conditions (like when you're chasing them around the tank trying to catch them), the males tend to stress sooner (i.e. they have red undertones).One final method I'll propose (but haven't ever really used) involves watching the fish when the lights first come on in your tank. The males will generally be the ones chasing the females as they skim along the bottom depositing their eggs.

I will comment that trying to sex younger zebrafish is quiet hard as the coloration isn't as strong.

[Lady Hobbs]

Poor woman in the store had enough trouble even catching them without me picking out certain ones.

I wonder how the giant danio works. Are they super fast and annoying like these ones are?

[Willyleigh]

Here are some of the pics that I took, none of them great but you can see a alright picture of a female

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A Male

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And side by side.

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[Willyleigh]

And yes that is a hose that you can see in pic 1, I was changing the water!

Also try and spot 4 Galaxy rasboras in the second photo!

[Lady Hobbs]

Your female is noticably larger than the males. Mine doesn't have that much contrast. I removed the light and hood and got out my trusty strainer to try to rescue her but the minute the light was not shining on her, I once again couldn't tell the difference between them. She's on her own! LOL

[hungryhound]

Your female is noticably larger than the males. Mine doesn't have that much contrast. I removed the light and hood and got out my trusty strainer to try to rescue her but the minute the light was not shining on her, I once again couldn't tell the difference between them. She's on her own! LOL

haha....yea, they're fast little buggers. I can remember when we went to our LFS to get some zebrafish. I was really admit about the male to female ratio, but gave up on it once I saw how much trouble she was having catching them!

I honestly don't know much about the giant danios....my guess would be that their larger size would help to slow them down, but that's just a guess.....

[Incredulous_Ed]

One thing you can do right after they spawn is to vaccum the gravel into a bucket. Hopefully you will get some eggs when you vacum the gravel. You can just keep the fry (if any eggs hatched) in the bucket.