# How do i know if my fish is pregnant or not?



## Ziki

I have a fish and the stomach is just bigger than all the fish in tank. I don't know whether it's pregnant or not. And if it's pregnant, what should i do?


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## Ozone

really fish get pregnant??? i thought they lay eggs:exclaim:


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## TAB

Ozone said:


> really fish get pregnant??? i thought they lay eggs:exclaim:


not all fish lay eggs, many give live birth.

what kind of fish are these?

Fish like guppys, mollys, sword tails, plattys... all give live birth.

If you don't want to raise the baby fish, you can do nothing. If you would like to raise them, you need to isolate the mother. something like one of these work great

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/204233/product.web

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/14468/product.web ( several diffrent kinds out there)

I pesonally like the nets as I feel they allow better water movment. They will not stop the mother from eating the young.

If its not a livebearer... well swim blader probs generally lead to death


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## luckydud13

More info is really needed, but usually swollen bellies are a given sign


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## Ziki

someone at fish store told me that i need another tank and put marbles at bottom of the tank so the mother won't eat the baby, and the Zebra Danio will lay a few times to empty all her eggs...i just try to keep the budget low cuz i can't afford another tank


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## Six

It's not really worth the time and effort to spawn and raise zebra danio fry. The guy at the LFS is absolutely right- that's how you breed them. But, you don't have to. Egg scatterers like most cyprinids will breed regularly in your aquarium, but they do not "need" to be bred. 

HTH!

GL!


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## demen45

big belly is a good sign that the fish is pregnant


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## Tex Gal

If you want to try you can get some screen (fiberglass window screen) and sew it into a box or dip in into the water to make a pool. Put all the fish in the pool. This basically separates them from the other part of the tank. You can stick some floating plants up there too if you want. They will spawn and all the eggs will fall through the screen. The problem you will have is that in about 7 days they will hatch and come to the top of the water. Unless you have a way to keep the adults separated from them they will eat them.

If you did this in a separate tank you could only put the gravid (pregnant) fish and 2 males in the pool. At dusk they will breed, either the first night or 2nd night. On the 3rd day using the screen just remove the adults back to the big tank. In 7 days they will hatch. Make sure you have a sponge over the filter intake. They will eat baby fry food and microbes around the plants. You can leave them in the filtered tank until they are big enough to put in with the adults. A 10g works great for this.


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## Ziki

thanks everyone, now i have problem w/ my water cuz the pH is little high so i have to stop my fish from dying 1st. hix... so probably won't able to breed...


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## Six

how high? pH won't kill fish if it's too high or too low unless it is fluctuating or just plain rediculously high (8+) or low (<5) . 
"fixing" pH usually means dumping in a chemical- don't do that! If you're really worried about pH, do small water changes with RO water to bring it down. I'm talking like 10% of the tank's volume. There are other ways to naturally bring down pH.

Honestly, zebra danios are very hardy in high or low pH. I think it's more likely something else that is killing them.


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## Diana K

pH in itself is not usually an issue, unless as mentioned by Six it is just WAY out there. What is the GH and KH in this tank, and the tap water, and how has the pH been changing? What are the test results? 
Have you done or added anything different to the tank lately? 
What is your regular maintenance schedule? % and frequency of water changes, and any additives you are using? 

Female Zebra Danios do get fat when eggs are developing. It is called gravid. Breeding as described above if you want to save the fry. Otherwise just let them breed in the main tank. Almost all the eggs and any fry will get eaten If you cannot afford another tank for breeding, what were you going to do with dozens or even hundreds of baby Danios?


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## Ziki

thanks everyone, I have my tank stable already. The man at fish store told me that I didn't give time for the tank to cycle, so I already add bacteria in the tank. Everything seems to be ok in the past week. If anyone have other suggestion about my tank. Plz, let me know.


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## Six

more plants! 

...you should have seen that suggestion coming, this being a plant-tank website and all...


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## OrangeCones

More faster growing plants! Stand that supports the entire bottom under the tank...Move tank away from window (might help with algae growth).


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## Ziki

I already add more plants to my tank... I couldn't find anything in the house to hold the tank but the tool...may be when i have chance to buy something to hold the tank...cuz I'm on budget cut.


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