Gold Barb Mating Behavior?

[uliabear]

i have two gold barbs that i recently got from my local fish store and they have adapted well in the tank and i like to call them twins because they just swim around together, anyways that’s besides the point. i was just watching my fish and noticed that one of the barbs was rubbing against the other, i’m assuming it was a male barb rubbing against the female, is this normal mating behavior? should i do any preparations for little babies? i’ve never had two fish mate before so i’m pretty new at this. I would post pictures but they just stopped doing it, both fish are pretty small as i’ve seen ones with big bellies, could mine still have a possibility of getting pregnant? thanks for the help

 

[Colin_T]

Barbs scatter eggs in plants. A pr (1 male & 1 female) will swim side by side into some plants and release their gametes simultaneously. The eggs get fertilised and sink to the bottom. Some eggs might stay on the plants. This will happen several times until the female has expelled all her eggs. At which time the pr swim off and rejoin the school. However, in your case they will swim off together and continue hanging out together.

You should really add a few more fish to their group. barbs need to be kept in groups of 10 or more if possible, but it depends on tank size and inhabitants.

After a few days the eggs will hatch and you might see tiny little semi transparent things hanging on the side of the glass. These are the baby fish called fry. A few days later and the fry will start swimming around just under the surface. You will need to start feeding them with a very fine baby fish food, either a liquid or powder form, available from any pet shop. Look for "Fry food for egglayers".

The parents and other fish in the tank might eat the fry so don't expect many to survive. If you have lots of plants in the tank, especially floating plants, some might survive.

 

[uliabear]

Barbs scatter eggs in plants. A pr (1 male & 1 female) will swim side by side into some plants and release their gametes simultaneously. The eggs get fertilised and sink to the bottom. Some eggs might stay on the plants. This will happen several times until the female has expelled all her eggs. At which time the pr swim off and rejoin the school. However, in your case they will swim off together and continue hanging out together.

You should really add a few more fish to their group. barbs need to be kept in groups of 10 or more if possible, but it depends on tank size and inhabitants.

After a few days the eggs will hatch and you might see tiny little semi transparent things hanging on the side of the glass. These are the baby fish called fry. A few days later and the fry will start swimming around just under the surface. You will need to start feeding them with a very fine baby fish food, either a liquid or powder form, available from any pet shop. Look for "Fry food for egglayers".

The parents and other fish in the tank might eat the fry so don't expect many to survive. If you have lots of plants in the tank, especially floating plants, some might survive.

awesome! i’ll keep an eye on them, i have a few more inhabitants in the tank, 4 tiger barbs, a panda barb, a rainbow shark, and a paradise gourami, i know it’s quite a weird combination of fish, i sent my brother to the fish store to get more tiger barbs and he came with two tigers and the two gold barbs the panda and the gourami, luckily there isn’t any aggression thank god, i have a few plants in the tank but nothing special, lots of hiding spots though with all of the decor hopefully i’ll have a few survive but my guess is they’ll be found my the other fish as they’re always digging trough the gravel and little plants in the tank