First attempt at breeding fish - Zebra danios
- Thread starter Hendre
- Start date
Hello; I have raised zebra fry several times. First food can be from a few sources.
One way I have made fry food is to make dry food into a powder. I had an old coffee grinder, the type with adjustable grinding surfaces and not with the spinning blades. I would grind dry food like shrimp pellets into a fine powder. About a one half to a teaspoon should be plenty. Other ways to grind the stuff might be a mortar and pistil such as a pharmacist might use. I suppose a pair of pliers might get some of the dry food down to a fine enough powder. The powder will take a few minutes to sink.
A sponge filter in a fry tank works well as other mechanical type filters will gather up the fry as well. A mature one will likely have some tiny food sources that the fry can eat.
Another way to have fry food is to make an infusoria culture. (Help to be a bachelor for this.) Boil some lettuce in about a gallon of water. Pour the water and lattice into a jar open to the air and set aside for a few days. I usually start the infusoria culture the day of the spawning or a day before. The culture will hatch out tiny critters that the fry can eat. I pour a little into the grow out tank when the fry begin to swim. (For the first day or so the fry will sort of just hang onto tank surfaces. I think they are finishing up nutrition from their yolk sacs.) The culture will stink pretty good by the time it is ready.
Another food that may be of use is a few canned peas. I will squeeze a few peas to rupture the skin and mush the insides out into the water.
I like that you removed some of the water. My breeding tanks have been from a 20 long to a 29 gallon. I start with water to only a 1/4 of the tank capacity. This allows me to add infusoria culture water for a few days and later just fresh water. I try to not overdo the feeding and spoil the tank water until the fry are big enough to not be sucked out during a water change. The trick is to have enough food for the fry to find pretty easy and not so much as to spoil the water.
One way I have made fry food is to make dry food into a powder. I had an old coffee grinder, the type with adjustable grinding surfaces and not with the spinning blades. I would grind dry food like shrimp pellets into a fine powder. About a one half to a teaspoon should be plenty. Other ways to grind the stuff might be a mortar and pistil such as a pharmacist might use. I suppose a pair of pliers might get some of the dry food down to a fine enough powder. The powder will take a few minutes to sink.
A sponge filter in a fry tank works well as other mechanical type filters will gather up the fry as well. A mature one will likely have some tiny food sources that the fry can eat.
Another way to have fry food is to make an infusoria culture. (Help to be a bachelor for this.) Boil some lettuce in about a gallon of water. Pour the water and lattice into a jar open to the air and set aside for a few days. I usually start the infusoria culture the day of the spawning or a day before. The culture will hatch out tiny critters that the fry can eat. I pour a little into the grow out tank when the fry begin to swim. (For the first day or so the fry will sort of just hang onto tank surfaces. I think they are finishing up nutrition from their yolk sacs.) The culture will stink pretty good by the time it is ready.
Another food that may be of use is a few canned peas. I will squeeze a few peas to rupture the skin and mush the insides out into the water.
I like that you removed some of the water. My breeding tanks have been from a 20 long to a 29 gallon. I start with water to only a 1/4 of the tank capacity. This allows me to add infusoria culture water for a few days and later just fresh water. I try to not overdo the feeding and spoil the tank water until the fry are big enough to not be sucked out during a water change. The trick is to have enough food for the fry to find pretty easy and not so much as to spoil the water.
Site is messing with uploading, seems to be an issue for many right now
I will add as soon as i can
Wow so much info, thanks
I will find a way to mash flakes well, and try some of the boiled egg yolk for the first few days of free swimming. I will also try peas if i have them
I did not boil my lettuce, i have 3 jars with pieces of lettuce in that i only rinsed off before putting in jars of tank water on my balcony. 3 days later and not much sign if anything, still completely clear water
The 5 gallon is the only tank i have to raise them since the parents are in a 15 and my butterfly fish will slurp small danios if they get close. The water level is a little under halfway to make it easier to feed since i have heard of that before.
And apparently putting a large airstone over the tank end of a pipe for a waterchange creates a very slow flow that will eventually get water out but never suck in fry, any opinions?
Thank you so much for that info S skjl47 it will help me a lot
Hello; I think the hot water breaks down the lettuce and allows the process to take place a bit quicker.
I have heard of the egg yolk as food but have not tried it yet.
Zebra fry are tiny when first hatched, look like bits of thread on the glass, and can take a while to get any size. This is why I went to the 20 gallon plus breeding tank so as to prolong the time before a first water change.
I can not picture in my mind the airstone setup you mention so do not have an opinion about how the fry will be affected. The best I have come up with has been to wrap a fine mesh cloth around the end of a siphon tube. Even then I siphon the water into a container that I have a good look at before discarding.
Zebras are egg scatter breeders that produce lots of eggs. I guess the strategy is to produce a lot of eggs and count on the large numbers so a few will make it to maturity. This results in very tiny fry that make a water change a problem for a time.
The good thing is that they are prolific spawners and will be ready to spawn again shortly. I am confident they spawn often in community tanks. I use to siphon tank water from a community tank into a ten gallon tank on a lower shelf. Several times fry would show up in the lower tank ( not zebra fry only) that I raised. Even if this first batch does not do well you can try again soon and make adjustments.
Good luck and enjoy.
I am unfortunately down another danio due to the butterfly fish who i thought was too small to eat them, so he is confined to the net now.
The airstone on the siphon pipe works similarly to the cloth in that it is lots of tiny pores to suck water through
I would get larger tanks but unfortunately can't afford to get more tanks and kit them out for breeding
If the fry attempt fails i am moving the danios to the 5 gal anyway since the salvini has been picking on them pretty harshly so i doubt more breeding is possible unless i get myself a rack system and more tanks
Ugh, i think my first spawn was a dud
If it wasn't then the eggs are getting eaten. My salvini only took 3 days to become homicidal and almost killed the parents while i was watching so he and the butterfly were rehomed to the 5 gallon until i can figure out what to do with all my fish. Maybe swap them into the 15 and keep the others in the 5.
But anyways my first attempt has failed. I hope to try again in future
(There are some really nice purple leopard danio variants at the LFS, big and healthy. I might try those at some point)
If it wasn't then the eggs are getting eaten. My salvini only took 3 days to become homicidal and almost killed the parents while i was watching so he and the butterfly were rehomed to the 5 gallon until i can figure out what to do with all my fish. Maybe swap them into the 15 and keep the others in the 5.
But anyways my first attempt has failed. I hope to try again in future
(There are some really nice purple leopard danio variants at the LFS, big and healthy. I might try those at some point)
