What to expect when my Danio is expecting...

[Memphishy]

I have 5 glofish Danios. Red, Lime, Orange, Purple, & Blue. The Lime colored one has had a square tummy for (give or take) a month. I don't know their genders. So I'm not sure who the father is. I've dealt with pregnant Mollies & with success. Will the fry be multicolored? Or are some colors more dominant than others? Should I take any special precautions? Maybe buying something like a larger fake plant for her? Do they give live birth like Mollies or do they lay eggs? Nobody in my aquarium is aggressive, they're all peaceful fish so I'm not worried about them being eaten. Or should I be?

 

[AngelFishGirl]

I have 5 glofish Danios. Red, Lime, Orange, Purple, & Blue. The Lime colored one has had a square tummy for (give or take) a month. I don't know their genders. So I'm not sure who the father is. I've dealt with pregnant Mollies & with success. Will the fry be multicolored? Or are some colors more dominant than others? Should I take any special precautions? Maybe buying something like a larger fake plant for her? Do they give live birth like Mollies or do they lay eggs? Nobody in my aquarium is aggressive, they're all peaceful fish so I'm not worried about them being eaten. Or should I be?

Glofish are not livebearers they lay eggs. Now I've never kept danios, but from what I've heard they lay their eggs/fertilize them during sunrise every morning.
Glofish are patented, so be prepared to give them away for feee to a friend or to a LFS, because they are illegal to sell.

 

[Memphishy]

So is something wrong with my Danio? Or do they get square tummies when they're preparing to lay eggs? I'm confused now.. I don't plan on selling them. I'm looking into either acquiring a larger aquarium to move everyone into or a smaller one to separate some of them into. I am overstocked as is.

 

[Memphishy]

Not sure how much you can tell (they never sit still for very long) but you can kind of see how this one is shaped much differently than the others in this picture.

 

[Fishfur]

Danios are egg scatterers. Females may get full of eggs, and if so, they will drop them randomly on the substrate. Males tend to stick to one female after mating with her once. So if you have more boys than girls, most won't mate. You need roughly equal numbers of the sexes.

Girls have slightly wider, rounder bellies, boys are more slender, both from side to side and from top to bottom.

If one gets a noticeably rounder, fuller belly, it may well be a female filling with eggs, but you are probably not going to see any fry, especially if it is a smaller tank. If you use big pebbles or marbles as substrate, it can help stop them getting at eggs, but they will still eat fry when they hatch.

They happily eat their own eggs and fry, so chances of seeing live fry are very, very slim. It is not aggression, it is just the way danios are.

 

[Memphishy]

Danios are egg scatterers. Females may get full of eggs, and if so, they will drop them randomly on the substrate. Males tend to stick to one female after mating with her once. So if you have more boys than girls, most won't mate. You need roughly equal numbers of the sexes.

Girls have slightly wider, rounder bellies, boys are more slender, both from side to side and from top to bottom.

If one gets a noticeably rounder, fuller belly, it may well be a female filling with eggs, but you are probably not going to see any fry, especially if it is a smaller tank. If you use big pebbles or marbles as substrate, it can help stop them getting at eggs, but they will still eat fry when they hatch.

They happily eat their own eggs and fry, so chances of seeing live fry are very, very slim. It is not aggression, it is just the way danios are.

Thanks for the info I'm pretty sure most of them are males then. Just this one & maybe one other female. I'll keep you guys posted if I do happen to see fry. My gravel is small round/jagged rocks. The tank is a 39 gallon but depending on a few things.. They may all be moving to a 50+ maybe 70+ gallon soon.