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Breeding Danios
Zebra Danio, Pearl Danio, Leopard Danio, Giant Danio or Long finned Danio
By Evelyn
Copyright 2007

5 gallon tank that is already cycled with 5 inch of water
with a submersible heater
a sponge filter
enough marbles to cover the bottom with 2 1/2 inch in height
5 drops Methylene Blue per gallon of water, once the eggs are laid
and of course a breeding trio (2 females/1 male)

Conditioning and spawning them

Condition your trio in a regular community tank, mature Zebras are very easy to sex, males are very slim and the females when ready to breed are very heavy. If your female is not noticeably heavy she is not ready to spawn. Just keep them in your community tank and feed well until they get in condition.
Have your 5 gallon tank already set up, that means cycled with 2 1/2 inch of marbles in it, the right temperature, a sponge filter and only 6 inch of water.
Danios are egg scatterers and do eat their eggs, that's the reason you're suppose to have the marbles, because the eggs can fall to the ground.
When your females are noticeably heavy put them into your spawning tank in the evening and turn the light off, they should be spawning in the following morning, if they didn't just let them go another day.
Don't feed them for a couple of days, if they still haven't spawned feed them only lightly and let them go for another couple of days.
In the worst scenario, if they haven't spawned after 4 days, just take them out and try it again in another week!
However, if you were successful, you will notice that the female/s will be noticeable thinner. Just remove the fish back to the community tank and watch them.
If you look closely, you should be able to see eggs all over your spawning tank, at this point add 5 drops of Methylene blue to the spawning tank, that protects the eggs from getting fungus. (it also will turn the water blue)
At this time darken the tank, the darker the better
The babies should start hatching in 36 to 48 hours. You will see them clinging on the side of the glass, they are VERY small, DO NOT FEED until the fry are swimming.

Raising the fry

The fry will be free swimming after they're about a week old.
At this time you can start feeding liquid fry for egg layers (available at your pet shop)
After another week you can start them on dry food, also made especially for egg layer fry.
Once the fry are free swimming, you can start removing the marbles, but very carefully, it's much easier to keep the tank clean that way.
Use a small siphon hose to remove dirt every day, and refill the lost water with aged and conditioned water, and on every cleaning you can start slowly adding a bit more water then there was before, like 2 inch of extra water every day, never more, because your fry won't find the food and they will die from hunger.
If you have a very large spawn, you might have to split them up, so they are able to continue to grow.
After about 8 weeks you can start adding them to your community tank or try to sell them to a pet store or so, whatever your plans where when you started breeding them.

Good luck with breeding them and enjoy!