New Fry - How many will live?

[yashinfan]

I will be breeding Zebra Danios shortly. I have two seperate tanks, the community one and the breeding tank. In the breeding tank the bottom of the tank is filled with 3 layers of marbles so the fry can fall without being eaten by mom & dad right away. I was wondering how many fry will actually survive? I want to make sure that I have enough room for all the fry plus the originals. Thanks!

[ArkyLady]

I've never studied up on breeding zebra danios, but it's really hard to say how many will survive. There are so many things that could happen easily and kill off a large portion of the fry. I'd do some searches on google and see how large the average zebra danio spawn seems to be and plan (hope) for that.

I've been studying on breeding bettas and the average betta spawn is 250ish it seems. However, I read about one lady who had a spawn of 700+ (she gave up counting at 700) and they were all surviving well. So I guess you never know :)

[Z Man]

Once you know that the fish have spawned, you should remove them and most of the fry will survive.

[wetmanNY]

A suggestion:

Get one of those open screen plastic tank dividers. Get plenty of Java Moss and put it all in one side. Put a plump female in with the Java Moss and a few males on the other side. Watch and wait. In a few says, when they're looking anxious to come together, pull out the screen one evening after lights-out.

When dawn comes, they may spawn. Be up early yourself and ready to chase them into the empty side and replace the screen. Now you can remove the fish at your leisure. All the eggs caught up in the Java Moss are safe.

BTW, if you could identify the pair that did most of the spawning, they'd be glad to repeat. Not exactly a pair-formation-- but a preference.