Once you’ve sexed your danios, place the males and females into separate tanks to prepare them for breeding. If you’re having a hard time sexing your danios before they’ve been conditioned, you may need to feed them premium live food for a couple of days before you’ll be able to tell them apart. Once you can tell them apart, separate the males from the females.
If you are unable to obtain live food, you can use frozen food as an alternative. [4] X Research source You should notice the female danios grow rounder as they’re being conditioned! This is a great indication that they’re developing a lot of roe and are ready to breed.
Choose between the marble method, the breeder net method, or the spawning mop method for the configuration of your breeding tank. Once you know what configuration method you want to use, you’ll know how much water needs to be put in the tank.
Spawning simply means the female danios have laid eggs and the male danios have fertilized the eggs. Since you can’t tell if the eggs are fertilized, the best thing to do is watch for eggs at the bottom of the tank. Once you see eggs, you know your danios have spawned and you can move the adults back to their regular tanks.
Since adult danios will always try to eat the eggs of their young, it is always a good idea to remove the adults from the tank with the eggs. The baby danios aren’t really safe from the adults until they’re all about the same size. Once your baby danios have reached adult size, you can put the “sons” with the “fathers” and the “daughters” with the “mothers”. Although, for genetic purposes, you may want to keep track of the different generations if you are planning to breed them again.
The eggs will then fall in between the marbles, where they’ll be safe from the adults. These are not special marbles, just regular marbles you’d buy in a dollar store or toy store. Or, you can use glass “rocks” from a decorating store or Ikea that are normally used in flower arrangements or candle holders. The upside to this arrangement is that it’s really easy to implement, as glass marbles are easy to find. The downside to this arrangement is that glass marbles have become expensive in recent years and this method may be more expensive then other methods. Another downside is that you have to “catch” the adults once they’ve bred, as they’re not contained in one area.
When looking for a breeder net, make sure it’s big enough to allow the danio eggs to fall through. You can buy a breeder net in most pet stores and aquarium shops. The upside to using a breeder net is that it’s really easy to put the adults in the net and take them out of the net. You won’t need to catch any of the adults in the main tank. The downside is that you have the find the right net for danios so the adults can’t get through the mesh, but the eggs can. You can easily overcome this downside by asking someone at the aquarium store for assistance.
You can easily make your own spawning mops using the following instructions: Cut pieces of acrylic yarn to ~2 feet in length. Lay 2 dozen of these yarn pieces beside each other and fold the bunch in half, right in the middle. You should now have ~48 strands of yarn hanging down. Put a knot in the top of the bunch, where you’ve folded it in half, to hold all the pieces together. An upside to this method is that the spawning mops are homemade, usually with old materials you (or a friend or family member) has anyway, so you don’t have to spend money on anything new items. The downside is that you have to physically make each mop. Another downside is that you’ll eventually have to catch the adult danios when it’s time to move them out of the breeding tank.
Danio fry are extremely small and transparent, making it very hard to see them. You’ll need to carefully observe the tank to make sure you see them swimming around. Danio fry who are not free swimming usually attach themselves to the side of the tank to keep themselves in one place. They may be easier to see when they do this.
You can find this special fish food at some pet stores and any aquarium store. Ask the salesperson if you are unable to locate it on your own.
In order to have fresh water at the proper temperature available, you may need to set up a separate tank with a heater that is simply used as a reservoir for your breeding tank. If you use tap water in your reservoir tank, be sure to add dechlorinator to the water before putting the water into the breeding tank.
You can continue to introduce new foods to your baby danios as they grow. Some options for other foods to try are: frozen cyclops, chopped tubifex worms, and live daphnia.
Depending on how many females you put in the breeding tank, you may want to prepare this larger tank based on an estimate of the number of babies you’re expecting. It normally takes danios 6 weeks to reach a size of 1 inch long.
