Zebra Danio Care – The Ultimate Beginner Guide For This Active And Personable Fish
Key Takeaways For Zebra Danio Fish Care
* Schooling Fish: Zebra Danios also know as Zebra Fish (Scientific name: Danio rerio) are a very social schooling fish and should be kept in groups of 10 or more.
* Size and Lifespan: They are easy to keep, grow to about 1.5 to 2 inches. They will live about 2 years.
* Water Parameters: They are not to particular about water parameters. Tropical fish temperatures and a neutral pH is fine.
* Feeding: Zebra Danios can be fed a variety of fish foods and vegetables.
* Breeding: Zebra Danios are easy to breed.
* Diseases: The are subject to all of the diseases other aquarium fish get. There are treatments available to cure these issues.
* Quick Start Guide: I’ve included a “quick start guide” near the bottom of the page.
Link to an amazing video showing zebrafish breeding. Egg laying is very clear. Worth a watch! Opens in a new tab or window.
FAQ’s on Zebra Danios
Question: “How many Zebra Danios should be kept together?”
Answer: You should keep 10 danios at a minimum. If you have a large tank certainly more than 10 is acceptable.
Question: “Are Zebra Danios a hardy fish and easy to keep?”
Answer: Yes ZD’s are easy to care for and a bit more difficult to kill than other small fish species.
Question: “Are Zebra Danios agressive? “
Answer: Not really. They won’t bother other fish in your tank. They will chase each other around in the morning as part of mating.
Question: “Are my Zebra Danios fighting or mating?”
Answer: Both. As part of mating the males will chase the female Danios. The males will chase the other males away in an effort to be the only male to breed with the females.
Question: “Where do Zebra Danios lay their eggs?”
Answer: On the bottom of the aquarium usually around plants.
Question: “How often do Zebra Danios lay eggs?”
Answer: In a group of 10 or more they will lay eggs daily.
Question: What size tank should I have or get for Zebra Danios?”
Answer: Ten Zebra Danios need at least a 20-gallon aquarium. My suggestion: 25 Zebra Danios in a lightly stocked, planted 55-gallon aquarium would be perfect.
Question: “How long will Zebra Danios live?”
Answer: For me under extremely good conditions they live a bit more than 2 years.
Facts About Zebra Danios
Size – Description – Life Span – Origin – Behavior
Zebra Danios are a small fish with a body shape that is long, rather than wide or tall. At maturity, they are about 1.5 to 2 inches in length (3.8 to 5.0 cm).
They are called Zebra Danios because of their stripes. They have varying white or slightly yellow and dark stripes, like a zebra might have.
Besides the typical stripes, the male Zebrafish, have a golden yellow hue, which is more intense when mating.
How long will they live?
Having kept them for years in extremely good conditions I can safely say that they won’t live must more than 2 years.
Where do they orginate?
They originate from India, Myamar area.
Behavior
I’ve kept Zebra Danios for years. I think the main thing I see is how incredibly active they are
They aren’t shy and in fact are very active and love to school, with the Zebra Danio group darting this way and that.
Again, having kept them, I can say they probably don’t care too much about the aquarium setup. They stay at the top of the water column so don’t really interact with plants or other decorations.
Zebra danios are very social with their own kind. You might not think that if you were to see them right after I turned on the lights. When I turn on the light, they fight, chase and mate all at the same time. This is typical behavior for Danios. I recommend buying at least 20 fish for your aquarium.
Image above: Female Zebrafish
Author Bio: Don Glasgow - creator of this site
* I've been keeping fish for 24 years.
* I've have been keeping planted aquariums for 23 of those 24 years.
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Recommended Tank Conditions:
| Water Temperatures | Very tolerant 61º F up to 90º F (16º C to 32º C |
| pH | Not picky. Neutral (7) is fine. |
| Water changes | What I do is 20% weekly and a 90% every 3 months. |
| UV sterilization | I use high quality UV sterlizers attached to the cannister filter. |
| Filteration | I use Fluval 207 cannister filters on both of my aquariums. |
| Tankmates | As long as they are not predators any fish type will do. |
| Understocking | I put half (or less) as many fish as the tank will support. Makes life easier for me and for the fish. |
This is the UV Sterlizer I Use
(I have 2 of these)
Tap for price.
What to feed, how often to feed and how much to feed Zebra Danios
I feed my Zebra Danios once or twice a day. I give them anything a freshwater fish would eat:
* Frozen fish foods (but not blood worms which are dangerous to fish)
* Fish food flakes and crisps
* Canned and fresh cooked vegetables
* Live fish foods
* I feed all of my fish including the Danios a mix of color flake food, decapsulated brine shrimp, and tiny bug bite brand pellets.
12 Potential Tankmates
(Please note: This is kind of a no brainer but don’t mix your danios in with other fish that are large enough to eat them.)
This is just to give you an idea of tankmates. I keep Tiger Barbs with my Danios.
- Neon Tetras
- Cardinal Tetras
- White Cloud Minnows
- Cherry Barbs
- Harlequin Rasboras
- Guppies
- Tiger Barbs (I have these in with my Danios)
- Other Danio species
- Rainbow Fish
- Mollies
- Swordtails
- Rummy Nose Tetras
Any of the above 12 fish would go great in your community aquarium with Zebrafish.
How to keep the beautiful Discus Fish
9 simple steps to breed Zebra Danios
I should actually write about how to stop Zebra Danios from breeding. That would be a bigger challenge. If you have a school of happy, healthy Danios, they will breed every morning when the lights go on. So your role is to turn on the lights. Good job. You’ve just bred Zebrafish!
If you want to breed zebra danios and then raise the fry, here are some suggestions that will make that likely.
1. Set up a breeding tank. I recommend a 10 gallon or smaller aquarium. This would be a tank with something on the bottom to allow the fertilized eggs to fall through so they don’t get eaten. This could be a layer of marbles or a grate in which the slats are close enough together to keep the adult fish from going after the eggs.
2. You can tell males from females as the females will have a fatter body. When mating, the males will also have a yellow golden sheen in addition to their stripes.
3. These fish want warmer water to breed in.
4. Place your choice of adult Zebra Danios in the breeding aquarium. Do this after they are done with their morning breeding ritual. Feed them as normal and then, in the evening, turn off the lighting.
5. In the morning when the lights go back on, the fish will begin laying and fertilizing eggs automatically. You won’t need to feed them. When they appear to be done mating, you can move the adults back to their regular tank.
6. On a side note, well fed female Danios can lay up to 300 eggs every day!
7. The eggs will hatch in two to three days. About 2 days after that, the fry will start swimming around. At this time, you can start feeding the fry. Keep the fry in a small tank so that they can find the food you give them. Feed them food small enough to fit in their tiny mouths. I suspect baby brine shrimp will be too big, so stick to cooked egg yolk and rotifers at first. When they are a bit larger you can feed them larger foods including brine shrimp, micro worms, and similar sized foods.
8. It won’t take long for the fry to grow to adult size. They reach maturity in 90 days after hatching.
9. Zebra Danios are an excellent fish to practice your fish keeper’s breeding skills on. You don’t need to do much and the less you mess with the breeding, the less chance you’ll have of messing things up. Just let the fish do what they want to do naturally and your efforts will be rewarded.
12. Zebra Danio diseases and how to fix them
Zebra Danios can contract the same diseases that all tropical aquarium freshwater fish can get.
It’s said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. How can you reduce the probability that your Zebra Danios become ill? Here is what I do and it works great.
* Change at least 20% of the aquarium water each week. Do a 90% water change every three months
* Use 100% reverse osmosis water
* Use a high quality UV sterilizer.
If you do these three steps it is highly unlikely your Zebra Danios will every get sick.
If you Danios do become ill, here are infections that can affect your fish and suggestions on how to fix them:
1. Bacterial Infections
Symptoms include open red sores, cloudy eye(s), excessive body slime, gill rubbing, and fin/tail rot. To fix these issues. If I were purchasing a medication for my sick fish, I would buy API Fin and Body Cure. This is the same company that makes the aquarium water conditioner I’ve used for 30 years.
2. Fungus infections
Fungus is usually shows up as cottony growths on the fins, body or mouth of the fish. You might also see a reddening of the body or fins. I would recommend the same company for treatment of this problem. API Pimafix Antifungial should do the trick.
3. Parasite infections
Parasite infection shows up as wasting disease or a swollen abdomen (scales are raised). API General Cure will control aquarium fish parasites.
4. Ick
Ick (a parasite) shows on a fish as white dots. API Super Ick Cure will correct this problem.
Are Zebra Danios right for your aquarium?
I’m going to say a strong yes in answering that question. They are easy to care for, undemanding, and inexpensive. You can’t go wrong with a school of Zebra Dainos in your freshwater aquarium.
Zebra Danio Care – Quick Start Guide
These are in alphabetical order and have links to more information about the subject.
Aquarium Size:
What size aquarium do they need? What I did: 30 gallons for 10 Danios plus community fish.
They are schooling fish, so you will want to buy at least 15. You will probably lose 5 to pet store disease after you get them home.
Danios are extremely active fish. To accommodate 10 of them, I would probably go with at least a 30 gallon tank to give them plenty of room to swim. More...
Aquarium Set Up:
Here are 6 suggestions for setting up a Zebra Danio Aquarium. 6 steps…
Cost:
How much does a Zebra Danio Fish cost?
PetSmart has small Zebra Danios for sale at $2.29 each. If you buy them from an online seller, you will spend $10 each and up. Why buy from an online seller? You won’t have to deal with loss due to pet store diseases.
Behavior:
Are they peaceful or aggressive?
Peaceful. As mentioned, they get aggressive among themselves during their morning mating. No harm ever comes from this activity. More…
Breeding:
How difficult are Zebrafish to breed?
Very easy to breed. If you have a small school of Danios they will mate every morning when the lights go on. Read more: 9 simple steps to breed zebrafish…
Food – Feeding schedule for Zebra Danios:
How often should I feed my Zebra Fish?
Having kept them for many years, I would recommend that they be fed small amounts three times a day. They are very active, so I have found that they need to feed that often or they will get skinny. More about feeding you Zebra Danio…
Food – Amount:
How much food should I feed my Zebra Danios?
Fish owners like to overfeed their fish, so feed just enough that they eat everything in five minutes or so. If you keep to recommended number of feedings per day, your fish will be healthy and happy. More about feeding your Zebra Danios…
Food – Types:
What do I feed them?
You’ll want to feed them a well-rounded mix of various fish foods, both protein and vegetable based. They like and will eat every type of fish food including flake food, pellets, frozen and freeze-dried foods. More about feeding you Zebra Danio…
Is Zebra Danio care easy or hard?
Easy to keep fish. They like to play and fight among themselves but won’t disturb other community fish.
Lifespan:
How long do Zebra fish live?
They will live for approximately 2 to maybe 5 years. More…
Bonus Danio Super Care: Here’s how to help your Danios to live 5 years. The 5 year plan…
Origins:
Where do Zebra Danios originate from?
Basically from the country of India. Here’s a map…
Size:
How big do Zebrafish get?
Zebra danios are a small fish. Most of the zebrafish I’ve kept were 1.5“ to 2” in length. More…
Substrate:
What type of substrate should line the bottom of the tank?
This choice is up to you or may be dictated by the other community fish. They are mid-level swimmers that rarely check out the substrate.
Tank Mates:
What type of fish can I keep with my Zebra Danios?
Just about any tropical fish. For example: Neon & Cardinal tetras, Guppies, Mollies, Platies, other Tetra Fish, and what I have with my Danios Tiger Barbs.
You can also keep them in a cool water aquarium with goldfish. 12 types of recommended tankmates…
Water Parameters:
What water parameters do they need?
They want the water condition similar to their native habitat. They can handle a wide variety of temperatures, from 61 Degrees F. up to 93 degrees F.
This said, they are flexible in regards to water parameters and can do just fine with normal tap water set at the proper temperature.
Something I find interesting is that they can handle water temperatures as low at 61 degrees F. This means that they would make a great addition to a goldfish aquarium.
Below is a video I made. Danios are swimming around at the top of the aquarium.
Tap image below and large video will open in a new tab or window.
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Question: I’ve seen that zebra danios are used in science experiments. What’s that all about?
Answer: ZD are fairly sturdy fish not easy to kill. Their cells are similar enough to humans that so can easily be used to study cancers, heart disease (their hearts are self-repairing), medications, and the fish’s ability to regrow body parts after damage.
Damage to the spine: Brainfacts.org, Researching Regeneration Through the Zebrafish (an easy to understand article about spine repair)
Heart damage self-repair: Science Alert publication, Zebrafish Can Repair a Damaged Heart, And a New Study Reveals How. A commercial site (ads), but the article is easy to read.
Spinal cord damage self-repair: National Library of Medicine, Zebrafish Spinal Cord Repair Is Accompanied by Transient Tissue Stiffening Scientific, dense article, but the concept is amazing.
There is more. I’m only able to give a quick overview.
