You need a pair.

[Lateral Line]

I was researching some stuff and came across an article where some guy had spent 2 years trying to breed his barbs - without any success. Having begun to read the article I was suprised, because he seemed to have gone about things the right way.

Like him, I was thinkging of water quality, tank size, planting, lighting, pre spawning conditioning etc. etc. etc.

Only at the end of the article did he reveal the true cause of his failure. He was visiting a friend that had some of the same species - and discovered that he had 3 males!

 

[Eelzor]

haha, what a waste of years. I wouldn't be too happy owning a species for 2 years thinking they were going to breed and at the end they would have been males. Oh well, loose some, get some.

 

[cheirodon]

Sounds like an Axiom, where all premises and variables are correct, except for the initial one, which makes the entire string useless!!!

And, yes, reproduction among members of the opposite sex has proven much easier than the alternative...

 

[lgreenmk]

Umm, unless you're a seahorse, then you don't need anybody right?

 

[platypus]

Nope, seahorses mate like 'normal' males and females, it's just it's the male who stores the fertilised babies instead of the female - lucky seahorses!

It's hermaphrodites who can self-fertilise, well some of them, like sea snails. This is because they are both male and female in one. Most of them prefer to mate with another hermaphrodite though, because it spreads their genes around better. In this case when two meet, they'll often fight over who gets to be the male! Confused yet?

 

[CFC]

Oh dear i bet he felt like a right plonker but it could be a easy mistake to make, i have a pair of satanoperca which i think are male and female but wont get down to business, but i cant be sure if its that they dont want to or they are actually the same sex, external differences are slight if any in then and in lots of other fish and without actually seeing spawning behaviour first it can be impossible to tell who is what.