Breeding: Dario Dario

[Wizzy]

I am very interested in breeding the Dario Dario Fish.

From what I've read about them the process sounds pretty easy.

Can anyone offer advice on the best way to do this?

[Chrisinator]

Rearing the fry is harder than breeding itself.

[Wizzy]

Originally Posted by Chrisinator

Rearing the fry is harder than breeding itself.

Do you have any recommendations on what food to feed the fry? I heard Infusoria/Micro Worms is good, but are both required?

What size Breeding Tank is good/What size tank for rearing the Fry?

Any other advice?

[Wizzy]

I have a 20 long lying around that I may want to use?

Would a 10 gallon be better for breeding?

Any more advice?

This is my first breeding project, so perhaps someone has a suggestion for other species I may want to try breeding first?

[Adri.]

I'm interested in what people have to say about this, since I'm getting a male and two female Dario Dario soon.

[theshadybird]

Ditto.

[mistergreen]

I'd imagine raising Dario fry would be a lot like raising betta fry. Infusoria, bbs, then grindal worms. You can use Microworms or bbs when they're big enough.

I just bought 3 pairs myself. I'm waiting for the females to get fat..

[ducky14523]

This is a fish i'd try in container ponds during the warmer months. From what i've read they havve adecent temperature range and what not. I'm going to try it next spring. I usually do paradise fish and this year i added drape fin barbs to the selection. I got 25 or so good sized paradise fry and 10 or so drape fin fry of good size with zero spot feeding of the fry. I did feed the adults every three days once i noticed fry. The natural prey items that appear in the ponds makes keeping micro predators happy. This year i am trying to keep a handful of leaves and pond water on the window sill to see what grows. It's an easy way to grow copepods but i wonder if they might be too large of prey items for dario? Certainly what lives on decaying leaves should be small enough.

[DBlauj]

Awesome little fish but let me warn you that they are really picky about their food. I had four males and was able to grab some juvies from a fella who was getting out of the hobby. The males took to frozen brine shrimp and blood worms about two weeks after I got em. Other than that the juvies only ate live foods which I only had BBS. The fella I got them from said java moss was the trick to breeding them and he had em in what I believe was a 10g. Females are the ones that are hard to come by because they lack color so importers or LFS don't really care for them. I gave them up because it took a really long time for the juvies to grow so I could breed the females with my older males. Juvies were about seven months and the juvie males were showing just a little color. Took longer than I would have wanted so I sold em all. Really cool fish but I suggest a species only tank cause the will struggle for food against other fish. GL and sorry for the long post.

[theshadybird]

Yup yup. I'm not especially planning to breed, just keep them, but their pickiness about food is why I'm planning to keep them only with some Hara Jerdoni, which has similar food needs. I've heard people have good results from Grindal and White worms, which are pretty easy to grow, as well as Daphnia, black worms, and blood worms. Msjinkzd, who's a really nice dealer of D. Dario, has had luck with some frozen foods as well.

Not impossible to feed, but definitely tricky!

[mistergreen]

They take grindals well and grindals are easy to raise too unlike whiteworms.

[theshadybird]

Oooh, are whiteworms harder to grow? I've never kept live foods, only researched. Grindals were going to be my choice since they are smaller, and D. Dario are teeeny fish, as are the Hara Jerdoni.
So, what are the differences in care between Grindal and White? :curious:

[mistergreen]

Whiteworms are bigger and only breed well in cold temperature like 50F. People raise them in a spare fridge. Grindals' population can grow in room temperature.

[somewhatshocked]

Grindal Worms are definitely waaaay easier to grow.

Container of moist dirt with air holes poked in the top, occasionally add fish food or a crushed chuck of dog food and bam, population thrives.

I have containers in several cabinets and closets and my better half is constantly freaking out over them.

[mistergreen]

I use coconut fiber in the reptile section. And make a .5 inch hole in the lid and stuff it with filter floss or cotton balls so insects can't get in. You might have to deal with little ticks that hitch-hike with the worms. Don't overfeed and they wont be too annoying.

I keep 4 containers in the aquarium stand so not to freak anybody out.