Feeding Dario dario

[snowc]

Hi, I have been feeding my dario darios live daphnia for quite a while and wish to explore for alternatives. Sometimes the LFS do not have any stock left when I came down.
I heard that they take live baby brine shrimps as well. Do anyone know where I can get them? They are such fussy eaters that they practically ignore everything I feed my corys and tetras. Even the block of frozen daphnia I throw in rarely get a look or peek.

[Quixotic]

Besides live food, you can try frozen bloodworms, but...

1. you may need to drop the food right in front of them (I use a pipette),
2. do not feed those that are too large, otherwise they may choke (you can try cutting large ones into small ones with a pair of scissors).

Otherwise, live tubifex if you are well aware of the risks and know what to expect of it. Or even better if you could culture live food for example microworm, white worm, vinegar eels and so on.

I used to feed mine exclusively on live tubifex and frozen bloodworms.

[snowc]

About culturing live food, I saw some brine shrimp eggs on sale. It is packed in a transparent cylindrical container and displayed on the shelf. Have anyone successfully hatched them?

[doppelbanddwarf]

Baby brine shrimp(bbs) is rather easy to hatch. You can just google "hatching bbs" and you'll get plenty of links on how to do this.
Also a hatchery dish makes it even simpler. There's a merchant selling this in AQ: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...light=hatchery

[catfish]

I started keeping Dario Dario about two months ago. I was faced with the same problem with feeding. About a month ago I started feeding them with tubifex and this is how I do it. I created a hole in the gravel by inserting a used plastic bottle of fish food. Then I use a small measuring cup and made two small holes on each side and thread a fishing line through it to create a handle. I filled the measuring cup with some of the gravel to add weight and also as an anchor for the tubifex. In this way you can actually refilled the tubifex by lifting it up from the handle and place it back again into the hole. See pictures. The reason I place the tubifex on the gravel is because Dario Dario like to hide and very seldom they come up to the surface so in this way they can go to the food easier. Like our brother said, tubifex are known to bring diseases but if you rinse them carefully before feeding it alright I think. So far I have no problem and the Dario Dario are getting bigger and more colourful.You can find in this forum how to keep tubifex alive for a week. Very useful method. I bought only 30cents worth each week and kept it alive for a week each time.

[Merviso]

Hi, I have a pair of them too and are feeding them live tubiflex worms that I just throw around in the tank. Lucky for me, my dario dario is quite active and swim around my planted tank quite a lot.

Bro catfish, looks like the fish in your picture is the female. I just compare my pair this morning. I notice that my male are more reddish and the Pelvic fin are longer than the female. The female also look more rounded than the slim male. Hope I'm not wrong...

[catfish]

Hi, I have a pair of them too and are feeding them live tubiflex worms that I just throw around in the tank. Lucky for me, my dario dario is quite active and swim around my planted tank quite a lot.

Bro catfish, looks like the fish in your picture is the female. I just compare my pair this morning. I notice that my male are more reddish and the Pelvic fin are longer than the female. The female also look more rounded than the slim male. Hope I'm not wrong...

I am not sure but I think it is a male. The female is much paler and not so bright in color. How many have you got? Are you trying to breed them? I have only three one of them is almost white with a little reddish color. Hope this one is a female (see pic).

[Merviso]

I started with 4 and now left with 2. Maybe I'll try to take a video clip of my pair tonight and we can make some comparisan.

I did not purposely try to breed them, therefore they are in my community planted tank with my shrimps and some other small fishes. If they really start to breed, then I may set up another tank for them and try my luck...

[Quixotic]

With reference to catfish's picture...

the first one is a male Dario dario as the bars and colour are too distinct to be a female.

The second picture is a little strange, it looks to be a female but the head of the fish is strangely too reddish (compared to the body). I hope it's not a sick fish. Any clearer picture?

Here are some pictures of male/female D. dario.
http://www.nothobranchius.de/html/dario_dario.html
http://www.fishbase.com/Photos/Thumb...y.php?ID=60260

[doppelbanddwarf]

A piebald male Dario dario?

[catfish]

With reference to catfish's picture...

the first one is a male Dario dario as the bars and colour are too distinct to be a female.

The second picture is a little strange, it looks to be a female but the head of the fish is strangely too reddish (compared to the body). I hope it's not a sick fish. Any clearer picture?

Here are some pictures of male/female D. dario.
http://www.nothobranchius.de/html/dario_dario.html
http://www.fishbase.com/Photos/Thumb...y.php?ID=60260

Hi Quixotic,

Its a healthy fish. I bought it as I thought it could be a female but yes I thought the body shape is not like a female although the coloration is much paler. Here's another picture of it. Male or female ?

Anyway I bought 6 more from Polyart today and I hope amongst this lot I have a female or two.

[Quixotic]

chongyu, interesting thoughts, but I have doubts it's a piebald male D. dario.

Well, just looking at the body alone, it probably qualifies as a female. Time will tell, good luck.

[Panut]

LFS, from what i know, even farms, rarely/never release females.

[fireblade]

you can identify the female from the egg sag... near to the stomach area..
almost like a betta ..
have breeed them before but somehow they are quite fragile and no females in my spawn..

[RHX]

Love Dario Dario, but Hate giving live food. In the end, i never got to keep one. Hope you have success breeding it.

[Panut]

You mean dario dario never takes micro gran or dried food?

[RHX]

They never touched the dried foods. Had one before, he rather starve himself to death rather than to eat those dried foods.

[Panut]

Stupid fish

[EvolutionZ]

last time mine trained to eat frozen daphina

[Panut]

I want to feed it micro gran!!

got an idea, feed micro gran to the whole tank and see which one eats. then catch it and bring home. Bingo!