Pearl Danios.

[BristlenosePleco]

I have 3 Pearl Danios, one I suspect to be female. Now the 2 I think are male keep slapping each other in the face with their tails. Could they be competeing for her? Also I read somehwere that if you want to breed Danios you must lower the water level to 5-6 inches and have a wack load of live plants. Is that true? If so what is the likelihood of Danios breeding in a tank not set up for it?

 

[Doomhed]

danios usually lay eggs on the bottom of floating plants as far as I know, and they lay their eggs right before the start of the rainy season, so lowering the water level a bit for a few days right before a rainstorm is most likely your best idea.

but to be fair, this is one fish I have not bred, although I have bred splashing tetras, which are somewhat similar.

 

[BristlenosePleco]

I don't plan on breeding them or anything. I was just wondering how easy it was, in case they just did it themselves, I wanted to be at least a little prepared.

 

[OrangeCones]

The behavior as you described sounds like males competing. Are these Pearl Danio or Celestial Pearl Danio?

Either way, they both breed like rabbits. Put a chuck of java moss in a corner and either remove the moss after a two days to its own tank or gravel vac the moss to collect the eggs if you want to. They hatch in 3 days.

They are egg scatterers, and the eggs will stick where they land. If they've landed on the gravel, they will stick to it, or to plants. The moss makes it easy to 'shake' it out to gather the eggs.

Left with the adults, the adults will gladly eat the eggs and newly hatched fry, so you don't get overpopulated!

 

[BristlenosePleco]

So if I end up with a bunch of babies in my tank will all my fish eat them? If so should I still do regular feedings?

 

[OrangeCones]

I'd still feed your adult fish. No telling who in the tank would eat the eggs/fry.

Do they look like the video in this posting, the tail slapping?

http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/freshwater-general-discussion/60743-fish-fighting.html

 

[BristlenosePleco]

Yeah I knew I saw that somewhere! I was going to refrence it in my original statement as an example of what they looked like, but I coulden't remember who posted it, and I couldn't find it in the forums. They look just like that except maybe not so back and forth. My guys must be a couple of wusses cause they get one good hit on each other and they both take off! lol.

 

[OrangeCones]

They likely have a good pecking order established if there are only 3 total fish. I have 14 in that tank, 6 males, so they are often trying to figure out who's the boss. They do that everytime I do a water change.