Zebra
danios, Brachydanio rerio, are of the family Cyprinidae.
This fish originates from the waters of Eastern India and Bangladesh.
They are an easy fish to maintain, taking dry food readily. Their
water temperature should be approximately 72-78 degrees F.
I could go on with a dry and boring history of this fish. Fortunately
for you, I won't. The real purpose of this article is to present
another manner in which you can spawn this fish.
After researching through various books for methods to spawn zebras,
we weren't impressed. The methods ranged from using marbles on the
bottom of the tank to making a screened false bottom. We didn't
feel like running from store to store looking for marbles nor making
a false bottom. The purpose of both methods was to protect the eggs
and fry from hungry parents.
We rooted around the basement and found the parts for a set-up for
breeding zebras. It consisted of a 2.5-gallon tank, a guppy breeder
trap, and a Tetra Billi sponge filter. We hung the trap in the tank
and placed the filter in the tank with the spout adjusted with the
filtered water flowing into the trap. We then placed a few strands
of Java moss and the breeders into the trap.
The reason for the filter flow into the trap was simple. Since danios
are a streamlined fish, and they most likely spawn in fast-moving
waters, this was an attempt at duplicating nature. The spout need
not be underwater; with the airflow turned up the bubbles will push
the water up through the spout.
This method allows you to feed the breeders heavily and still be
able to maintain a cleaner environment than the other methods would
permit. The excess food and wastes fall through the slats in the
trap and can be siphoned from the bottom of the tank; however, once
the females begin to fatten with roe, you should discontinue heavy
feedings and siphoning, or you could siphon the fishes' eggs.
Since the eggs are so tiny, it is difficult to see them after spawning.
However, when the females become thin, that is a good sign of spawning
activity. We had kept our breeders so stuffed with food that it
was hard to determine when spawning had occurred. Newly hatched
fry are very tiny and will hang on the sides of the tank near the
bottom. They were fed Liquifry until they could handle baby brine
shrimp. They grew quickly with multiple feedings per day.
Our breeders were conditioned on dry and live foods. The live foods
consisted of baby brine shrimp, tubifex worms, white worms, and
wingless fruitflies. |
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