How to care for Danio caviar and fry

When the fish spawned and were returned back to the main aquarium, care must be taken to preserve the eggs. Although the incubation period is very short, only 2-3 days, but during this time the eggs can become a victim of the fungus. As a preventive measure, experienced aquarists and breeders add antifungal drugs to the spawning aquarium.

What does Danio caviar look like?

The eggs are tiny round capsules (balls) of gray color with a diameter of 0.7 mm. One female is capable of producing over a hundred eggs, so at the end of spawning, the bottom can be dotted with a huge number of eggs. However, not everyone will be fertilized.

Baby care

The fry that appear are very small and translucent, they can hardly be distinguished. In the first few days they do not swim, being in one place and feeding on the remnants of their yolk sac. The main tasks of the aquarist are: to provide juveniles with food and maintain high water quality.

What to feed?

As soon as they begin to swim, you can start feeding microscopic food. Shoe ciliates are excellent food, but they are difficult to breed. An alternative to live food are special powdered products or suspensions for spawning fish fry, which can be purchased at a pet store or online.

Around the age of 7-10 days, you can try to serve new foods. Artemia nauplii or dry food of a suitable size, such as crushed flakes or pellets, is a good choice. Feed once a day, but continue to feed microscopic food. Once there is confidence that larger foods are being eaten, they should become the basis of the diet.

Aquarium maintenance

From the moment the fry hatch, the aquarium can already be equipped with a simple lighting system. The feeding process is accompanied by the formation of a large amount of waste. The fry are not able to eat all the food, and it will inevitably start to spoil and pollute the water. Placing a low power filter or airlift filter will help maintain the biological balance in the spawning tank. Freshwater snails will be a useful addition. They will eat leftover food, unfertilized eggs, dead fry (there will be such ones too).

It is important to replace 10% to 25% of the water daily with fresh water of the same temperature (25–28°C) and hydrochemical composition of the water (soft, slightly acidic or neutral).

When to transfer Danio fry to the main aquarium?

There are no exact time frames. Juveniles can be together with adult fish from the moment they reach 1 cm in length and even a little earlier (5–7 weeks of life). At this age, there is no longer a threat that they will be eaten. However, small fish are likely to lose competition for food, so the moment of moving to a community tank should be postponed until they are 70-75 days old, by which time the fry will grow to 2-x or more centimeters.