Breeding the Glow-Lite Danio

by Charles Drew (H&DAS)

It is not very often that you get a chance to acquire a fish that is new to the hobby in North America. Sometimes however we are so lucky and get a fish before the rest of the world has had it for several years. Danio choprae is such a fish. I first became aware of this fish on the web-site "Below-Water". That was in the fall of 2001. This spring (2002) Paul McFarlane and I decided to bring in some fish from this Montreal based importer. All went well and we had them all arrive safely and in excellent condition.

Danio choprae grows to about an inch and a quarter long. It is a light brown in colour with several dark brown vertical bars about mid body. Just down from the top of the back there is a golden red stripe that runs from the head to the tail much like a Glow-lite Tetra. Sexing these fish is fairly easy. The mature females are plumper and the thinner males often show darker colour. When they first arrived I tested the water they came in and found it to be slightly soft and neutral.

To try my luck at spawning this new fish I used a five gallon aquarium fitted with a spawning basket. The water was half RO. and half tap adjusted to neutral. In the spawning basket I placed an artificial spawning strip and a gentle bubbling air stone. There was no heater but the room was in the high 70's. Lastly, I put in the six fish. (Three pairs). The first day nothing happened. The second day there were several dozen eggs on the tank bottom. They hatched about two days later. Two to three dozen fry hatched out. Not too bad for fish that I had for only about two weeks.

The fry became free swimming two or three days later and were fed liquifry for a few days until they could eat live baby brine shrimp. The fry have proven to be easy to raise and will no doubt be swamping the stores from commercial breeders in the near future. I have found that the fry seem to be a little slower growing than some of the other small, common Danios. I found that mine were three months old before they developed their adult colour and the fish could be sexed. The shape and colour pattern almost gives them the appearance of a miniature Giant Danio. Here is a new fish to watch for and remember that you read about it first in the H&DAS Bulletin.