Cherry Barbs colouration...

Not so much a panic appeal for medical help, but trying to get some opinions from people...

A while ago I decided to try breeding my Cherry Barbs the first effort producing 6 surviving babies. (I know not a great outcome but it was my first effort at targetting breeding and with egg layers!!!). A year later, three of these babies are still living on with their surviving mum... she has since been put through another breeding attempt and around 14 babies have survived and now about 9 months old... but now my query...

Of all of these babies born so far, I have yet to find a fish developing the deep cherry male colouring! Could it be a case of the babies being a weaker strain (because mum and dad were bought from the same shop, and therefore maybe siblings?) and therefore not strongly coloured... or is it more likely that the overall conditions haven't allowed them to develop as healthily as normal?

The parents were transferred into a 20 litre breeding tank and conditioned before spawning, the resulting babies kept in that tan to grow after the parents had been removed. The young fish seemed to act in a healthy manner, showed no distress.. but overall the colouring looks very "Washed out". Some are showing a reasonably strong creamy brown colouring typical of emales, but others are much more pale... I can't beleive I've managed to breed a complete batch of females?!!!!!

Any thoughts from people here?

Could be ph, try another batch in another tank at the other end of the ph spectrum

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Hairy_Trev said:

or is it more likely that the overall conditions haven't allowed them to develop as healthily as normal?

Click to expand...

this is most likely....what have you been feeding them, right since birth?

The water quality is good... neutral Ph and regular water changes... they were started on liquifry food and moved on to regular flake...

There are different possibilities. How big are the "babies"?

Either they are not mature enough yet.

With only 3 survivors it is well possible that all of them are females.

The cherry red is not a natural trait, but was later introduced by commercial breeding. So maybe your offspring has lost that trait again. (That is not a sign of weakness!)

First pic here should be a wild male.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/puntius-titteya/

hobby5 said:

There are different possibilities. How big are the "babies"?

Either they are not mature enough yet.

With only 3 survivors it is well possible that all of them are females.

The cherry red is not a natural trait, but was later introduced by commercial breeding. So maybe your offspring has lost that trait again. (That is not a sign of weakness!)

First pic here should be a wild male.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/puntius-titteya/

Click to expand...

Thanks for the comment hobby 5.... although I politely comment that maybe you missed a couple of bits from my original post... I had said that ORIGINALLY three babies survived (and it would be possible for them to all be female), BUTA SECOND BREEDING ATTEMPT produced about 14 babies, now about 9 months old.

These babies are now around 1" long and still showing the typical female colouration (although the brown markings do seem bolder in some individuals than others). All the babies seem to be healthy and show no signs of illness, they don't hide or swim in an unusual manner and are quite active.

Your link the seriouslyfish.com did seem to back up the colouration of wild males so I think I am coming to a conclusion...

As both parent fish were bought at the same time from the same shop, there is a good chance they are related. Therefore, breeding them together has probably weakened the bloodline, resulting in them reverting to their natural wild clolouration for both males and females.

(Poor photo attached hopefully)... (at the second attempt!)