What is this fish?

[JD2]

Hi, I bought a load of Rasboras for my tank and three of these managed to creep in with them. Could anyone please tell me what they are? They are about an inch long, just a bit bigger than the rasbora. I thought they were Danios but I'm not sure.

Thanks

[Carylnz]

I would suggest Danio nigrofasciatus - dwarf spotted danio.

[JD2]

Great, thanks.
I went back to a couple of fish shops near me, but they no longer sell these fish. Would it be possible to breed my own?
I already have a spare empty tank that I've been trying to grow plants in for a month. Also looking at the three fish, one is noticeably larger so I'm suspecting that one is a female.
Cheers!

[Carylnz]

It is possible to breed your own, assuming you have at least 1 male and 1 female in your 3
Males are more colourful and females are fatter.
You can breed them in a small tank with lots of spawning moss or use marbles (moss is better or you can buy artificial spawning mats). The spawn on the substrate or moss/mat. As soon as they have spawned you then remove the adults or they eat the eggs - really fast!
Found the following information from http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/da ... fasciatus/
Like many small cyprinids this species is an egg-scattering spawner that exhibits no parental care. That is to say when the fish are in good condition they will spawn often and in a densely-planted, mature aquarium it is possible that small numbers of fry may start to appear without human intervention.
However if you want to increase the yield of fry a slightly more controlled approach is required. The adult group can still be conditioned together but one or more smaller, say 10-15 litre, containers should also be set up and half-filled with water. These should be very dimly lit and the base covered with some kind of mesh of a large enough grade so that the eggs can fall through it but small enough so that the adults cannot reach them.
The widely available plastic ‘grass’-type matting can also be used and works very well; alternatively filling part of the tank with spawning mops, Java moss or other fine-leaved plant can also yield good results.
The water itself should be of slightly acidic to neutral pH with a temperature towards the upper end of the range suggested above. A small power filter can be added initially and this should be positioned so that the flow is directed down the full length of the tank.
When the adult fish are well-conditioned and the females appear full of eggs one or two pairs should then be introduced to each container. Spawning can be initiated by adding small amounts of cool water every few hours in such a way that the tank is gradually topped up and feeding small amounts of live and frozen foods.
The adults will eat any eggs they find and are best removed after a couple of days at which point the power filter should be switched for a mature sponge-type unit in order to avoid fry being sucked into the mechanism. Incubation is temperature-dependant to an extent but usually takes 24-36 hours with the young free-swimming a couple of days later.
Initial food should be Paramecium or a proprietary dry food of sufficiently small (5-50 micron diameter) grade, introducing Artemia nauplii, microworm, etc. once the fry are large enough to accept them. This species is less fecund than most congeners with a female typically relweasing 20-50 eggs per spawning event.