Danios come from south east Asia where they live in freshwater streams and rivers. Many have horizontal stripes although there is a barred danio with vertical stripes and the glowlight danio which lacks stripes.
The Glowlight Danio (danio choprai)
This is a small Danio that is a surface dweller and, in the wild, feeds on insects and their larvae. It has an orange band on its body and vertical bars on the flank with yellow edged fins. It is a good community fish and lives peacefully with other community fish.
The Zebra Danio (Danio rerio)
The zebra danio gets its name from the fice blue stripes on its body. In the males the blue stripes are interspersed with gold stripes. Females have silver stripes. The zebra danio is about 2 1/2″ long when adult although it is rare for one to grow to this size in an aquarium.
The Rose Danio (Danio roseus)
This danio has rosy coloring on its lower body and appears purple/blue in sunlight. They grow to between 1″ to 1 1/2″ and generally live about five years.
How easy are Danios to keep?
Danios are very easy to keep and make good community fish. They are all surface feeders and can be given a mnixture of flake and live food. If you intend to breed danios then increase the proportion of live food. They will eat anything you give them so make sure that other fish in the tank do not miss out! They are active swimmers so do better in a larger tank and appreciate a strong current provided by a pump as they live in swiftly flowing streams in the wild. They are also good at jumping so keep the lid in place or they may well jump out!
Danios are best kept in larger groups where they can swim in shoals. They prefer temperatures of between 68F and 80F the lower end being cooler than many other tropical freshwater fish like.
Breeding Danios
Zebra danios are very easy to breed, other danios are harder. They will lay eggs scattered on the gravel floor of the aquarium which will hatch in two to three days. However if you intend to breed danios it is better to have a separate breeding tank and remove the parents after spawning or the eggs will be eaten.

