Article Breeding Celestial Pearl Danios

i recently spawned some celestial pearl danios with some success. i thought some people might find my experiences useful or may want to follow the progression of the fry and decided to post an ongoing article on the subject. so here it goes.

note: i keep all my fish in planted tanks with my city water right out of lake erie which i believe has a ph of ~7.4 and is very hard, and in temperatures ranging from 72-80. the danios will get really stressed and not do well over 80 and prefer the cooler ranges, but i dont like them to go below 75.

THE BEGINNING:
i started by seperating my females from the males to begin conditioning for egg production. this can be seen fairly easily as the males have a more intense coloration and the males anal fin has more red or orange accompanied by a dark bar through the center. also, the females tend to be more plump.i used 5 males and 5 females in this run(for my next spawn i think i will only use a trio or a pair because i think i will achieve similar results with the setup i use)

THE SETUP:
i placed the females in a ten gallon tank with a power filter that has a sponge on the intake, im sure a sponge filter would be fine, about 1/3 of the way full of java moss that i placed over a couple tupperware trays full of .5in gravel to catch the eggs(you can use a spawning grid if available but still use the java moss to encourage spawning and cover and food for the fry), some java ferns, watersprite, frogbit, and some driftwood to bring it all together ( they liked spawning under an arched peice of wood between the trays). i sucked up some copepods from my shrimp tank and added them to the spawning tank while i conditioned the females to build up a good natural food source for the fry, and they spread like wild fire during the week i spent conditioning them. i fed both the males and females golden pearls, frozen brineshirmp and bloodworms, micro pellets, and microworms for approx. a week and they looked like they were gonna explode and shoot eggs everywhere.

INITIATING THE ACT:
i then added the males the night before i wanted the spawning to take place and dropped the water level to about halfway(filter allowing). they began the spawning ritual with morning light or shortly there after, which entails the males displaying and circling each other, chasing the females until they accept them, the male and female locking bodies and shivering quickly as they roll and release eggs and milt. this went on for a few hours. i waited until i saw the females start to pick at the moss and wood for food becase this means they are done spawning for the most part and the males will still try to spawn with them pretty much all day when this happens remove the adults from the tank.

THE WAITING PART:(also the worst part)
now you have to wait 2-4 for days for all the eggs to hatch. some people use methylene blue, but i hear that it can destroy your whole filter bed, so i dropped about a 1/4-1/2 dosage of QuICKcure in the tank each day until they hatch to prevent fungus with good results. after they hatch you will see them hanging out on the glass and stones for another couple of days until the totally become free swimming.

FEEDING:
the fry are VERRRRRY small. using the large amount of java moss and other plants should ensure a huge amount of natural food supply to get them through the first few days of life until they are able to except prepared foods. you should be able see the microfauna crawling all over everything in the tank if you seed it with something from a well established planted tank during the conditioning period or a better option would be to do this before hand. i personally have what i think are cyclops, possibly daphnia, and some other unknown ones and tons i probably cant see.i know this works becuase i thought my attempt failed except for a few i saw hanging on the glass only to discover over 20 of them swimming in a day or two and i didnt feed them during that time. do not attempt to feed these guys bbs for quite a while, they are too small, the bbs will die, and you water will be fouled. the copepods in the tank seem to be the main food source for them throughout the day, however they will slowly become more reliant on the food you give them as they grow larger. probably the greatest thing since electricity is an awesome micro-encapsulated food called golden pearls. the range in size from 5 microns all the way up to 500 microns. these pearls are bright orange in color and have tiny air pockets that keep them in the water column with the slightest of currents. the movements simulate bs nauplii and stimulates the fish to eat them. i have great success with them along with many other aquarists. they are nutritous for fry and adults and i highly recommend trying this when raising fish of all sizes(you can purchase this stuff for cheap at ken's fish food website). i started my fry on the 5-50 micron size and am slowly working my way up the ladder (be careful with this stuff a LITTLE goes a LONG WAY. keep some snails in there to eat leftovers.). once the fry are large enough, as with all fish, i encourage the use of many different high quality foods to give them a complete and nutritous diet. feed them well, dont over feed, and take good care of them and they will grow quickly. again i strongly suggest golden pearls on top of the mass of java moss to acheive success with raising these tiny beauties and believe it is the key.

i hope this helps somenody out. im sure many similar danionin species can be raised in much of the same way. i know this really isnt that in depth, but it gives you the basics and with a little common sense and knowledge of fish im sure anyone can do it. its really not that hard to do so give it a shot and have fun working out your own twist with things while makin some fishy babies

 

your welcome

 

i have about 10 boraras brigittae as well. never seen any fry from them though, not sure why