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In my 65 litre community tank at home, there were several Cherry Barbs (Puntius titteya) which I have had for about 3 years. Although I have raised Swordtails and Platies several years ago, I have never tried breeding an egg scattering fish before. I had recently become interested in trying a breeding challenge, so having picked up a couple of small aquariums, I decided to give these bright small barbs a go. I removed one adult male, displaying strong colour and 2 plump females from the community tank and put them into a 3 gallon spawning tank.  This tank was fitted with a plastic 3 mm mesh net, supported by suckers and overlaid with Hornwort to form an egg trap. The water here is soft around pH7 and I set the temperature at 26C.  After 4 days I removed one of the females as the male wasn’t showing interest in either of them. After 5 days I did a partial water change and the male immediately began to chase the remaining female into the Hornwort. It was a real joy to see the male shimmering at the side of the female as she released eggs and the spawning took place over a 2-3 hour period. During the courtship the male really took on a stunning, strong red colour......  The following day both adult fish were removed to prevent egg/fry eating. After spawning ceased there was a complete change of character, with both fish at separate ends of the tank and the male lost all interest in pursuing the female. Unfortunately we were away on holiday the next day, but when we returned 5 days later, we were pleased to see some fry about 2.5mm in size, hovering just off the bottom glass. The bodies were an opaque colour and it was the tiny black eyes and almost disjointed twitching movements that caught my eye. Their small size made it difficult do an accurate head count at this stage.  The fry fed from their yolk sacs for the first few days, moving on to some infusoria already present in the tank. The first food I used was baby brine shrimp three times a day, which the fry could easily be seen chasing and eating. They could often be seen on the corners of the tank, where there was some algae with probably some micro-organisms present. After 10 days the fry had grown to around 4mm. I was given culture of Walter worms which supplemented the brine shrimp and the fry had no problems adapting to this food and seemed to grow on well. After 2 weeks, I removed the mesh from the bottom of the tank, leaving the Hornwort for cover. I could now see 5-6 fry in the corner with size difference of 2mm-5mm. The larger of the fry were developing a slight bronze colouration to their bellies by now, the first signs of any colour. I continued to feed Walter worm in the main, but gradually the fry were weaned towards Tetra min baby powder, which I used every 3rd feeding. A 10% water change was carried out every second day, using water from an existing aquarium as top up. A hose with filter floss over the end was used as a vacuum to collect the mulm from the tank base without the in-flow inadvertently drawing fry into the pipe. After 4-5 weeks there were 12 fry around 6mm long, all developing well. The larger of the brood are now showing definitive adult colouration, as well as the horizontal dark stripe along the lateral line. They have become quite active and will swim around all depths of the tank and now readily take Tetra min baby. Feeding is now twice a day, with Walter worm every 3rd feed and whilst not feeding from the surface, they will take particles in the middle to higher areas of the water column.  By 3 months the fish now range from 3/4" long to around 1.25" and have the adult colouration. They are happily eating Hikari micro pellets in the main, with adult brine shrimp and small blood worm 2 to 3 times a week. I split them into 2 groups of 6 to act as dither fish in two different tanks with Apistos and this seems to work well.  Summary: A good introduction to egg laying fish, fairly straight forward to get to spawn and raise, whilst being attractive and popular enough to sell on at auctions or shops. Although I only raised a small brood in this first attempt, I have been inspired to start a second spawning where I can watch them from egg onwards. I have been advised to give the fry lots of room in growing on tanks to help prevent against any spinal abnormalities, so I would not use the small tank that happily accommodated 12, for a brood of 50+. Copyright; Text and photos by Mick Marks. "My thanks to Mick, a newly joined member of Preston & Dist A.S. who took on a double challenge;- making a concerted effort at breeding his first egg scatterer and also writing his first article". (As well as some enjoyable banter in e-mail exchanges!!) |
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