Giant Danio and Buenos Aires cross breed???

[Hom3yboy22]

So this Has me pretty confused... I have a community tank with Giant Danios, Buenos Aires Tetras, Corys, and an Angel fish. A couple of weeks ago i noticed 1 of the Danios acting strange. Breathing fast and hiding in the corner of the tank. She was also swimming strange and had a small wound on her body. So i set up a hospital tank with some meds and moved her over. Unfortunately, the next day i woke up and she had died. So i removed her and left the tank alone. After about a week or so, i was surprised to find some fry swimming around. I figured she was pregnant and decided to release her eggs before she died. Now i have been raising them and they are getting pretty big. But the last couple of days ive been noticing that these fry dont look like Giant Danios. And they look a lot like Buenos Aires Tetras. But how? The tank was empty, i set it up, and the only fish i put in it was the Giant Danio... Is it possible the Giant Danio cross bred with a Buenos Aires Tetra? I Cant really think of any other explanation. What do you guys think? I will post pictures of the fry tomorrow.

 

[tlindsey]

will post pictures of the fry tomorrow.

Yes definitely do.

 

[Milingu]

Are you sure you are talking about a tetra?
The females lay unfertilised eggs that get fertilized by males during spawning. Since the fish was alone in the hospital tank there should not be any tetra fry.

 

[Hom3yboy22]

 

[Hom3yboy22]

So these are the fry that were born in the hospital tank after the Danio died.

 

[duanes]

When you set up the hospital tank, did you use tap water, or siphon some tank water, or use some filter media or substrate?
If you did siphon, you may have pulled up some tetra eggs, and in the hospital tank they hatched, and without predators survived.
If you used substrate or filter media, the eggs could have been in it.
They are not(as said above) fertile without a male to fertilize as they are being laid.

 

[Hom3yboy22]

The tank was empty and i filled it up with fresh water from the tap. But thats a very good theory. I was thinking could it be possible for me to have picked up the eggs in the net? Although i did catch the Danio very easily.

 

[Deadeye]

That’s wild! And those are definitely tetras.

I agree with duanes that you most likely picked up some tetra eggs during the transfer.
Many fish can hybridize, but it’s almost always limited to within its genus or closely related fish. Danios and BA tetras are too far removed, they are part of two different families (cyprinid for danio, characin for tetras), and also highly geographically separated with the danio from India (if I’m correct) and ba tetras are from Argentinia.

 

[Deadeye]

The tank was empty and i filled it up with fresh water from the tap. But thats a very good theory. I was thinking could it be possible for me to have picked up the eggs in the net? Although i did catch the Danio very easily.

Any substrate or filters from the display tank?

 

[Hom3yboy22]

I cant remeber exactly. But im pretty sure the sponge on the sponge filter i took from the main tank. I always leave a sponge on the filter intake of my main tank. So most likely i filled up the hospital tank and then got the sponge from my main tank to use in the hpspital tank. So probably thats how the eggs got into the tank?