Blue Snakeskin Danio (Danio meghalayensis)

[BallAquatics]

Last year on April the 20th I acquired a group of these fish from my friend Stephan Tanner of www.swisstropicals.com.  I had been after Stephan to sell them to me for some time, and when he found he was relocation to another state he finally gave in.  It was one of those bitter sweet moments when I found at long last I was going to be getting the fish, but my friend was moving away... such is life.   

Here in the states these fish are very rare.  Stephan hand carried these fish back from Germany where he acquired them from his friend Ingo Seidel back in 2007.

These fish have a reputation for being difficult to spawn in the home aquarium.  Yet another reason I found them attractive!

To make a long story short, after several unsuccessful attempts at spawning these fish using typical methods employed for egg scattering fishes, I tried something different.  Now don't laugh, but basically I fed them lots of live foods, did frequent huge water changes, and then just left them be.

On the afternoon of May 31st 2012 they spawned.  It was around 2:00 PM and I was doing water changes in the fish room.  We were having a spring thunderstorm at the time.  My lights don't come on in the fish room until noon, so to the fish, it was still early morning.

I had supplied the fish with a generous portion of moss to spawn in, but they chose to simply burrow into the course gravel substrate.  It was a group event with all 8 fish taking part.  It never occurred to me to shoot some video at the time.  When they were finished I thought I would vacuum the eggs from the tank, but decided to remove the adult fish to another tank.

Here is a video shot not too long after they had spawned.  The males are still showing their red spawning colors.

Fry at 14 days.....

Fry at 30 days.....

Fry at 60 days.....

Fry at 90 days.....

Dennis

[Mugwump]

That's pretty awesome....congrat's on the fry, and a job well done..

[BallAquatics]

Thanks Jon.  I've had them spawn a couple more times this fall, but as tank space is currently at a premium, I didn't save very many of the fry.

Dennis

[PaulineMi]

Wow!   How cool and congratulations.

[BallAquatics]

Thanks Pauline.

Dennis

[BillT]

I got some of these fish from Dennis on Aquabid. They are very healthy but still hiding out in their new environment.
Quite nice being able to get these difficult to find (in the US) fish.

So Dennis, the way these guys breed is rather different from "normal" danios. It is similar to the way Danionella are reputed to breed (by going into the gravel). I have had Danionella for a few years which got fat but would not breed until I read an account in Pete Cottle's book about how they bred buy diving into the gravel. i now think of this as the gravel diving method of breeding.

Are there other Danios/Devarios you know of that breed in this way? I have several Danio/Devario species I have yet to get to breed. I am thinking about providing a gravel bed for them to breed in.

Ultimately I would like to make soe kind of an egg trap with gravel on the top and under that a space where the eggs would fall through to so I could see and collect them.

[BallAquatics]

Are there other Danios/Devarios you know of that breed in this way?

Not that I am aware of.  Quite a few of the Danios/Devarios come from areas where they live naturally over a rocky substrate, but will virtually spawn anywhere, even over bare bottom glass tanks.

Ultimately I would like to make soe kind of an egg trap with gravel on the top and under that a space where the eggs would fall through to so I could see and collect them.

In talking with some of the local club members who have spawned US native fishes, they often place a container full of gravel substrate in a bare bottom tank and the fish will spawn over the gravel.  As long as the gravel is course enough, the eggs will fall below where the adults can eat them.  After the spawn, they simply remove the container to another tank to hatch and raise the fry.

Dennis

[BillT]

What size is the gravel you used? Looks like about 1/4".

As long as the gravel is course enough, the eggs will fall below where the adults can eat them.  After the spawn, they simply remove the container to another tank to hatch and raise the fry.

With zebrafish, I have used marbles which is probably closer to 1/2". They would just breed over the eggs but only dove down into them in attempts to eat eggs (zebrafish parental care!).

[BallAquatics]

What size is the gravel you used? Looks like about 1/4".

It's a course mix, probably runs from 1/4" to 5/8".  Of course it's not round like marbles are.

I have my own variation of an egg trap that I used to first spawn Danio tinwini here...  http://www.danionins.com/articles/diyeggtrap.html

Dennis