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This website documents my experiences with Apistogramma and Discus in a planted tank.
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Breeding Danio margaritatus AKA Celestichthys margaritatus AKA Celestial Pearl Danio AKA Galaxy Rasbora
In the beginning:
Fifteen Danio margaritatus AKA Celestichthys margaritatus AKA Celestial Pearl Danio AKA Galaxy Rasbora were given to me when a planted tank had to be taken down. I tried to do my best with them and was sucessful. Being able to breed and pass this fish onto another hobbyist was very rewarding. I wish only the best to anyone reading this.
I started with a mature tank lined with moss covering the substrate. I used plants like java fern to provide great hiding spots. Additional hardscape such as driftwood and rocks will make an ideal setup but collecting fish can be a hassle. A tank packed full of moss with pebble substrate is very ideal.
The eggs of the fish will lie in the substrate and hatch. The moss and pebble substrate are crucialbecause they provide shelter for the eggs. Once mobile the fry will scatter. This is where the plants come in. The instinctively defensive fry will hide in the plants, this cover is crucial to their survival. The parents will eat eggs and young.
As far as breeding stock goes it is best to use a ratio of two or more females to one male. However the intent of this article is not to promote the buying of Celestichthys margaritatus AKA Celestial Pearl Danio AKA Galaxy Rasbora for breeding but to help you breed the stock in captivity now. The overfishing of this species for aquarium use may lead to it's extinction. Please do not buy this species from importers.
Success:
I recently relocated my galaxies from the original tank. Days later the tank had a dozen fry swimming about. The largest amount I have ever seen. It is totally obvious to me the best way to breed these fish is by removing the parents, which are voracious eaters. This will dramatically increase survival rate of their young. I plan to relocate the parents and harvest fry for growing twice every month.
Seperating the parents from the eggs after spawning is the best technique for breeding these egg scattering "danios".
Getting better:
My breeding stock is in a 20 gallon long tank 30"x12"x12". This tank is ideal for breeding anything longer is much better. Use large pebble gravel along with lots of leaf litter, moss, java fern, bolbitus, pelia, all of the above...ect...the goal is to provide shelter for fertilized eggs. The more shelter the more fry. Using a tank divider I am able to relocate the parents without removing them from the tank. I simply remove the divider, corral the herd from one side of the tank to the other then reconstruct the divider. Relocating to another tank is an alternative but different water chemistry and/or change in environment will shock them a little bit.
I have not been able to see the spawn or the eggs so I can only guess when to relocate. I am experiementing now with reducing the amount of time before relocation. I have given them two weeks but now I will try one week.
Within three days the unoccupied side of the tank will be alive with fry.
The young fry were easily caught with a brine shrimp net. However this had spooked them all over the tank. The divider I purchased does not contain fry only the parents. So its hard to get an accurate count for each spawn. I've been netting fry out of the tank for two days and I've caught 31 so far. On the third day after the relocation I caught two more trying to catch one and noticed tiny fry from recent a spawn. It seems that both sides are producing fry after relocation.
Its been one week of collecting fry after relocating parents and I've relocated again. I have tallied 81 fry so far. An average of 40 fry per relocation.
The fry are back from previous relocation. It was under one week. I counted only 16 fry. The divider is doing its job allowing eggs to hatch but not containing freeswimming fry. I will keep relocating every week collecting fry. For now I have 101 tiny Danio margaritatus AKA Celestichthys margaritatus AKA Celestial Pearl Danio AKA Galaxy Rasbora to care for and prepare for others hobbyists.
The breeding tank does not have to be pretty. Above you see my 20 gallon long breeding tank. With the divider setup. Plain Estes Natural gravel. There is a piece of driftwood on the left covered in moss and java fern. On the right is more moss and some Bolbitus. The light is a 30" Coralife Freshwater Aqualight T5 18wx2 I run 8 hours or less. Filter is a Marineland Emperor and it's mounted on the side of the tank.
Raising fry:
The fry will be free swimming in 3days time and do not depend on parents. I remove of fry for growout in their own tanks. They will eat finely crushed flake and then bbs after a few days. I use spirulina flake from my local fish store. Small fry seem to live off the accumulating mulm in the planted tank, I like to think the finely crushed spirulina flake adds to that mulm. I've seen the large fry eating bbs while smaller ones nibble on the unhatched eggs inevitably caught with the bbs. For robust growth feed bbs or equivalent.
See my Brine Shrimp Hatchery.
Closing:
I highly suggest keeping this species alone and giving it the proper habitat to thrive in. The craze to buy this fish led to massive devastation of their wild habitat due to poor fishing techniques. My goal was to counterteract that stress on the wild population by helping other hobbyists breed the stock in captivity. Hopefully reducing the demand for wild imports in the end. Please help by breeding your Danio margaritatus AKA Celestichthys margaritatus AKA Celestial Pearl Danio AKA Galaxy Rasbora....and buying tank bred specimens. Thank you.
The water parameters in my galaxy tanks are neutral pH of 7.0, 130+ppm TDS. Temperature is 72F.
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