pregnant zebra danio

Question
We have four zebra danios in a ten gallon tank. We have a female
who seems to have laid eggs (she was very fat and chasing all the
males around) and this morning she is thin. We have been reading
about how we need to move the adults to a different tank to have
the fry survive but we dont have another cycled tank ready (as we
just figured out what was happening).  So what will happen? Or what
can we do? We dont want to kill the adults by putting them in an
uncycled tank. And how long do we have to "rescue" the fry from
being eaten once they have been disbursed to the bottom of the
tank?

Answer
Jane,


  With all the adults still in that tank I doubt you will have any survive to hatch. The breeding tank needs to have no more than 6 inches of water, If you would like to spawn I would get a ten gallon tank, put 6 inches of water in, a filter and a sponge heater and let it cycle. Now that you know what they do you can remove the breeding pair when you think they are ready to spawn. After spawning place them back into the main tank. Unfortunately, all the fish will eat the eggs before they get a chance to hatch. Just in case a few make it, put a lot of floating plants in the tank. The fry will see them and try to get to the plants to hide from all the adults. Good luck on your next spawning.