Breeding Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) In The Aquarium

Location

This fish lives in standing and slow-moving waters – in streams, canals, ponds, floodplains, rice fields in India and Bangladesh.

Body description

Colour of the body is silvery-gold with five, horizontal, gray-navy-blue stripes. The caudal and anal fins have horizontal stripes too. The dorsal fin is usually dark with yellow border. There are colour variations of the fish: albino, gold with long and flowing fins etc. They are different in length of their fins, patterns and colour. There is also fluorescent variation which is called a glowfish and it is genetically modified using jellyfish protein for green and yellow versions of danio or selected species of coral protein used for red versions of danio. It is illegal to sell those genetically modified fish in EU. Female is larger, less colourful and thicker in ventral parts.

Temperament and behaviour

This is peaceful, shoal, active and strong species. It is recommended for the beginner aquarists. Fish prefers to live in a group of 6 minimum. It can nibble long, flowing fins of other species (e.g. betta fish, gupies or angelfish). These fish may get the neon tetra disease (pleistophora disease). The fish often swims to the hand when you do your cleaning activities in the aquarium an pluck your hands. This fish may be kept with similar size and temperament species.

Aquarium decoration

This fish will feel well in any type of the aquarium - biotope, single species or general aquarium. Tank should include a lot of plants at the back and on the sides, place to swim, dimmed light, floating plants or pieces of wood and gentle filtration system. Dark substrate will expose brighter colours of the fish.

Breeding

This is an oviparous species. Breeding should be done in a separate tank. Aquarium should include low water level of up to 30-40 cm, 26°C temperature, pH=6.5-7.0, dimmed light, fine-leaved plants, gravel substrate or fish hatchery. Fish form monogamous bonds that last their life time. You transfer pair of the fish to the breeding tank in the evening. You can stimulate fish to spawn through more abundant feeding with live food, bigger partial water changes on few degrees cooler water or by gradually raising the water level. The fish should spawn in the morning. Female spreads up to 300-500 eggs among water or plants. You should immediately remove parents because they eat eggs. The eggs hatch after 1-1.5 days. The fry starts to swim and feed 2-3 days later.

Curiosity

This danio is a model organism used by scientists to study the genetic – mostly to study the development of vertebrates and to study of metabolic and neurological diseases. This is how the glowfish variation was created in US.