Gazoo
Fish Addict
I have some interest in purchasing a few gold barbs (Puntius semifasciolatus) but thought I would see if I could get some first hand comments before I do. Does anyone have any experience keeping them?
Has Anyone Kept Gold Barbs?
- Thread starter Gazoo
- Start date
Nim
Fish Crazy
Had a group of 6 (visible in the tank in my sig) Brilliant fish and I loved the, but after about 6yrs they slowly started popping out, I guess due to age. They do however love to munch on plants like dwarf hairgrass and lillaeopsis or even echinodorus quadricostatus. Now since they are gone, I can perhaps try these plants.
It may be a personal thing about plants as many people have kept them with different types of plants so it may work for you.
Nim
It may be a personal thing about plants as many people have kept them with different types of plants so it may work for you.
Nim
Yup, nice fish. "Man made" fish, actually a line bred golden "sport" so not a monster, often seen under the invalid name Barbus schuberti. Like most barbs, they are somewhat sensitive to water conditions and go nose down if they are off. In good water, they are easy to keep and feed.
They are not as active as some other barb species, the tend to drift about sedately. A peaceful fish that is no bother. Like their green bretheren, they tend to prefer slightly cooler water then some other species, 21C or thereabouts is great. They will be okay at higher, but start to suffer if it gets to say 26 - 27C, often blood flecks appear on the body if kept to warm.
In good conditions, the females grow to 100mm or more, males up to 25mm less, but typically they do not reach this size. Allow for 75mm per fish and the sexual dimorphism will correct for things.
Females are also deeper and wider as is typical. They are predominantly yellow with a liberal sprinkling of fine dark dots. Good females have some red in the fins.
Males tend to have more dark markings. The dots tend to be concentrated onto the upper flank where they form oblique lines. In really good males, they can almost appear striped. Fins show a lot more red, in good fish, solid red. Also some guanine crystals appear which can give the "greenish flash" at the right angle. I've noticed that some males have decidedly pointed caudal lobes, others less pronounced, but in most cases, more pointed then the generally rounded lobes of the females caudal.
In clean soft water well fed pairs develop a pinkish red colouration over the abdomen, this is normal and indicates they are in breeding condition. It is useless to attempt spawning if this colouration is not present. A well conditioned good sized adult pair that have been held in sexually segregated quarters rarely fail to spawn after a night together in a 1m breeding tank. Although the fish are quite large, the eggs are numerous and small, so the fry take a bit of rearing as they do tend to need Liquifry or similar for a couple of weeks before moving onto larger food. That said, they are reasonably easy to spawn.
They are not as active as some other barb species, the tend to drift about sedately. A peaceful fish that is no bother. Like their green bretheren, they tend to prefer slightly cooler water then some other species, 21C or thereabouts is great. They will be okay at higher, but start to suffer if it gets to say 26 - 27C, often blood flecks appear on the body if kept to warm.
In good conditions, the females grow to 100mm or more, males up to 25mm less, but typically they do not reach this size. Allow for 75mm per fish and the sexual dimorphism will correct for things.
Females are also deeper and wider as is typical. They are predominantly yellow with a liberal sprinkling of fine dark dots. Good females have some red in the fins.
Males tend to have more dark markings. The dots tend to be concentrated onto the upper flank where they form oblique lines. In really good males, they can almost appear striped. Fins show a lot more red, in good fish, solid red. Also some guanine crystals appear which can give the "greenish flash" at the right angle. I've noticed that some males have decidedly pointed caudal lobes, others less pronounced, but in most cases, more pointed then the generally rounded lobes of the females caudal.
In clean soft water well fed pairs develop a pinkish red colouration over the abdomen, this is normal and indicates they are in breeding condition. It is useless to attempt spawning if this colouration is not present. A well conditioned good sized adult pair that have been held in sexually segregated quarters rarely fail to spawn after a night together in a 1m breeding tank. Although the fish are quite large, the eggs are numerous and small, so the fry take a bit of rearing as they do tend to need Liquifry or similar for a couple of weeks before moving onto larger food. That said, they are reasonably easy to spawn.
Nim
Fish Crazy
Sorry, "Man Made"
There may be some strains of gold barb that can be considered man made but the common/normal gold barb is not man made.
Also, they very easily attain a 4" size in home aquarium and males also easily reach 3" and pretty quickly (I have had them and bread them and they reached this size in less then 1 yr). So they do get fairly large in a 4ft well maintained tank.
Rest I would agree with
They do love cooler temperatures and brighten up very well around 21/22 degrees. They are not skettish fish and can learn to feed from hand along with clown loaches very soon.
Nim
There may be some strains of gold barb that can be considered man made but the common/normal gold barb is not man made.Also, they very easily attain a 4" size in home aquarium and males also easily reach 3" and pretty quickly (I have had them and bread them and they reached this size in less then 1 yr). So they do get fairly large in a 4ft well maintained tank.
Rest I would agree with
They do love cooler temperatures and brighten up very well around 21/22 degrees. They are not skettish fish and can learn to feed from hand along with clown loaches very soon.Nim
The "Gold Barb" is a xanthic form of Barbus semifasciolatus, a fish which in regular condition is known as the "Green Barb". The gold form is a naturally arising "sport", and has been selected to produce a self consistant colour form. In that respect, it is a totally man made fish - in the wild, the gold sport would be easy targets and negatively selected for.
Wild B. semifasciolatus, I would agree, can easily reach 100mm+ but in the average lfs, the specimens presented are inbred, weak and of poor quality. The chances of them reaching adult size are very small.
Wild B. semifasciolatus, I would agree, can easily reach 100mm+ but in the average lfs, the specimens presented are inbred, weak and of poor quality. The chances of them reaching adult size are very small.
Nim
Fish Crazy
It would be very hard for me to believe. Though after your post I did a lot of reading around and many places do mention it to be a propogated strain of green barb/chinese barb but I have caught plenty of these barbs in streams of northern India. Ok the markings were not all that prominent as what we get in shops and they were not all that golden either but that is something which can be done by breeding selection as the difference in the wild caught ones and the ones in aquarium shops is pretty negligible.
Since I have caught these fish in the wild, I do consider them to be natural and not "man made".. The closest I can get to the natural/manmade concept would be of fancy Bettas which I would regard as "Man Made" but just maintaining a more colourful strain of golden barbs probably may not be.
I guess where do we draw the line as to what is man made and what is not but I certainly dispise labelling golden barbs as man made because IMHO they are not.
If you were to catch them yourself, you would probably agree with me and this is not something recent, I am talking about 1989/1990.
Oh and I did have nearly 4" specimens in my tank
Nim
ps: I have also caught rosy barbs in north indian lakes but strangely, they were much more colourful then the aquarium specimens.
Since I have caught these fish in the wild, I do consider them to be natural and not "man made".. The closest I can get to the natural/manmade concept would be of fancy Bettas which I would regard as "Man Made" but just maintaining a more colourful strain of golden barbs probably may not be.
I guess where do we draw the line as to what is man made and what is not but I certainly dispise labelling golden barbs as man made because IMHO they are not.
If you were to catch them yourself, you would probably agree with me and this is not something recent, I am talking about 1989/1990.
Oh and I did have nearly 4" specimens in my tank
Nim
ps: I have also caught rosy barbs in north indian lakes but strangely, they were much more colourful then the aquarium specimens.
I said that the xanthic sport is a naturally arising one. The same is true of other Cyprinids, the Gold Tench springs to mind. The point with the "man made" label is that in the wild, these fish are easy targets, and are picked off. I have no doubt that they exist, I have collected xanthic specimens of fish in Africa and South America. In all cases though, they were an extreme minority.
The man made element is that these sports have been removed from the population and line bred to "fix" the genetic trait. I have bred "golden" barbs several times and all of the offspring have been "gold". In the wild, this would not be the case as the population would be carrying "green" genetics as well, as such, breeding 2 random wild caught "gold" barbs is likely to produce a group of fry exhibiting some "gold" trait AND some green trait.
Something that I missed when posting origianly is my deep regret that the original "green" is now never seen in the hobby. I haven't seen one for perhaps 20+ years. A good quality B. semifasciolatus in the origianl colours is a lovely fish.
The man made element is that these sports have been removed from the population and line bred to "fix" the genetic trait. I have bred "golden" barbs several times and all of the offspring have been "gold". In the wild, this would not be the case as the population would be carrying "green" genetics as well, as such, breeding 2 random wild caught "gold" barbs is likely to produce a group of fry exhibiting some "gold" trait AND some green trait.
Something that I missed when posting origianly is my deep regret that the original "green" is now never seen in the hobby. I haven't seen one for perhaps 20+ years. A good quality B. semifasciolatus in the origianl colours is a lovely fish.
scooterchick
Fishaholic
What a thread, I love all teh interesting bits and origins etc.
Anyway, the simple answer is that golden barbs are a lovely addition to an aquarium, peaceful fish and very nosy! They're always the first to investigate any newcomers. I have 4 that I've had since they were tiddlers, 2 of them are def hitting the 4" mark, had them just over a year.
Anyway, the simple answer is that golden barbs are a lovely addition to an aquarium, peaceful fish and very nosy! They're always the first to investigate any newcomers. I have 4 that I've had since they were tiddlers, 2 of them are def hitting the 4" mark, had them just over a year.
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