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The Zebra Danio Danio rerio (previously Brachydanio rerio) is a lively little schooling fish that only reaches about 2 1/4 inches (6 cm) in the aquarium. It's easy to recognize with an attractively striped black and white "zebra" patterned body. This is one of the first types of tropical fish to ever be kept in the aquarium, and it is still enormously popular. Its very pretty, inexpensive, and a great for both beginners and advanced aquarists. Other common names it is known by are Zebrafish, Striped Danio, and Zebra Fish.
There are dozens of variations of this Danio selectively bred today, and certainly a variety to suite every taste. Some of the best known include the Longfin Zebra Danio and color morphs like the Golden Zebra Danio, Albino Zebra Danio, Longfin Blue Danio, and Sandy Zebrafish. Other well known varieties are the Leopard Danio and Longfin Leopard Danio that have spots instead of stripes. There is also a variety called the Hybrid Danio for those who just can’t choose between spots and stripes, which has a combination with both. A more recently introduced variety is a Zebrafish (Danio rerio) genome known as the “Glo-fish”. This is a genetically modified little fish available in beautiful fluorescent colors of bright red, green, orange-yellow, blue, and purple.
These hardy and attractive Cyprinids are ideal for beginners. They are prolific breeders and are the easiest type of egg layers to breed. As a schooling fish they should be kept in a small group of at least three individuals, though a schools of 5 or more is best. And being small, a school is suited to a smaller aquarium with 20 gallons being optimal. They can be housed with most any community fish, just make sure that the danio will not be eaten and that the other fish aren’t startled by swift movement.
Zebrafish are very durable and can withstand an impressive range of water temperature and conditions. They will generally do just fine without a water heater as they are comfortable at temperatures down to the low sixties (F). But even though they are not finicky about water conditions, it's best to not keep your aquarium at any extreme. Don’t be surprised if the school spends a lot of time in the water flow of the filters or pumps as a swift moving environment is what they are accustomed to in nature.
Care needs to be taken that neither specimens of this fish nor fertilized eggs be released into the environment. They are a tropical fish, and can't survive in areas of extreme weather conditions. They have been used for mosquito control and has invasively populated some environments.
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