Scientific Name: Danio rerio
Common Name: Longfin Gold Zebra Danio
Adult Size: 2 inches
Life Expectancy: 5 years
Habitat: South India
Minimum Tank Size: 10 gallons
Ideal Tank Conditions:
- Temperature Range: 64 - 74° F
- pH Range: 6.5 - 7.0
- Hardness Range: 5 - 12
Temperament: Peaceful
Diet & Nutrition: Omnivorous, accepting almost any food. Although undemanding in diet, they particularly enjoy small, live, or frozen invertebrates and fresh vegetable matter. They can be fed small pelleted food or flake fish food for their main diet, with supplements of freeze dried bring shrimp or tubifex worms, or frozen foods.
Breeding & Spawning: Zebra danios are ideal for beginners as they are prolific breeders, and interestingly females can spawn every two to three days after reaching sexual maturity at about four months. The tank bottom needs to be covered with a coarse substrate such as marbles or large gravel/pebbles so that the eggs will fall between the substrate pieces and will be protected from the adult fish, which will readily eat their own eggs once they lay them. The fry will hatch in about two days, depending on water temperature. Feed the young commercially prepared fry food or finely crushed flake foods.
Gender: Both sexes have two pairs of barbels and the same stripes, but females are usually larger. Males are a bit smaller and more slender than females. Male zebras appear more torpedo-shaped, while females tend to have a larger belly. More full-bodied than the males, a female's belly balloons when it fills with eggs.