Breeding behaviour

[Lauren2001]

Hello, I have recently joined the hobby and have started with two danios in my tank. One being a zebra danio and one being a pearl danio. I’m unsure if their gender however since joining the tank they have non aggressively followed/chased each other around. This morning they now appear to be rubbing against each other near the bottom of the tank, I was wondering if this is considered breeding behaviour or what it means for them to be doing this. Thank you

[Aiken Drum]

Pearl and zebra danios are both social fish and should be kept with minimum 6 of their kind. If not you will not see their natural behavior and they will survive rather than thrive. They are probably both trying to make the best of a bad situation. Expect abnormal behaviour, possibly aggression. How they will react will be a bit random.

It sounds like they are just playing, but if they are rubbing against tank objects like ornaments it could be parasites. Could you give some more details about your tank. Size? Water parameters? Etc.

[Lauren2001]

Hello, yes I’m planning on introducing more but wanted to add a couple at a time so I don’t overwhelm the tank by adding many fish at once. They’re not rubbing off anything else just each other. And I have a 25 litre tank. The temperature sits at around 22/23 degrees C. And the PH is 7.

[Aiken Drum]

When we ask for water parameters temperature, pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are generally what is needed. If you dont have a test kit that can get all these, get one, preferably a liquid test kit. Its a really important item to have to hand.

Im presuming from your response that you are doing a fish in cycle. Do you know how to do that? Without the test kit you have no way of knowing if your cycle is OK to add more fish.

[Lauren2001]

I apologise I am new to this and I’m doing all the research that I can. I want the best for my fish so I will definitely get some testing strips for the tank and research more into the nitrogen cycle.

[Aiken Drum]

Also 25 litre (about 8 gallons) is too small a tank to keep zebra danios in. You might just about get away with a small group (say 6 or 7) of the pearl danios. Either get a bigger tank (say 40 litres for a similar size group of zebra danios) or rethink your stocking. A single betta would fit nicely in that size tank.

[Aiken Drum]

No need to apologise. If you need help on fish in cycle, just ask. Until you are able to get your water parameters, i would recommend doing 20 - 25% daily water change to be on the safe side.

Originally Posted by Lauren2001

I apologise I am new to this and I’m doing all the research that I can. I want the best for my fish so I will definitely get some testing strips for the tank and research more into the nitrogen cycle.

[Lauren2001]

Okay I’ll do that. Thank you so much for your help.