Breeding Barbs

[molly girl]

are barbs livebearers? or do they lay eggs? and how long is the gestation period??

 

[Lateral Line]

All barbs are externally fertilized egglayers, even Barbus viviparus, who's name implies it is a live bearer, (when the first specimen was disected, it's stomach was filled with undigested fry from a cichlid species, these were thought to be unborn barb fry!).

 

[helterskelter]

Their egg layers

I filmed this last week of an unusual species breeding and you can see 2 males chaseing a females around.

http/youtube.com/watch?v=njYeXiZYcJo

 

[molly girl]

thanks!

 

[Lateral Line]

HS:

The film is not that clear, but I thought I saw dorsal ray extensions in a couple of the "passes". I think the fish are B. arulius, or at least, what we have been calling B. arulius for years. There is a new line of thinking which suggests the "arulius" are really B. tambraparni, and that arulius is rarely imported.

 

[helterskelter]

I too thought it may be B. arulius but was not sure and the extenations are only 2-3 mm and in full breeding bolour threr is only a slight red colour

Any other idea's?

Thanks

 

[Lateral Line]

If you look at Johnny's picture of tambraparni it shows considerably more body colouration with the orange/red flecking on the body scales. The whole arulius arena is somewhat confused at the moment as a number of "arulius" imports in recent years have been "different". I don't know if this is regional variation, multiple species, or if the "hand of man" has been involved.

It is not unusual for young arulius males to chase females. The dorsal extensions develop with age not acheiving the "trailing" character until a number of years have past. The fish at this time has been sexually mature for a couple of years.

 

[helterskelter]

Thanks, these fish are quite old 2 years what i know of, and in the sump i have got fry in the past so know their breeding quite often there, but their nice fish. just what to make sure of that they rearly are.

What a fun game this is!!

 

[Lateral Line]

I was looking for this yesterday but couldn't find it, I often have trouble with the search engine at PFK. I have kept and bred "arulius", (Ba), sveral times, also filamentosus, (Bf). If you look at the young Bf in this picture and compare it with the Ba in the PFK article, they look very similar. What worries me is the red in the caudal.

From my own breeding, I know young filamentosus have a red mark on the upper and lower lobes of the caudal that does not extend to the tip which is easily visible in the Bf pictures and possibly so in the PFK Ba.

Grown on of course, Ba and Bf are quite different as adults. Now where tambraparni fits in I'm not sure as I have not seen any here, and don't have the facilities to breed them at the moment anyway.

What do your young fish look like?

 

[helterskelter]

The young loosk like the pic of the Puntius tambraparniei on PFK site so will go with that got know.