Help Breeding Barbus Denisonii

[ElGuappo]

Barbus Denisonii. Native to southern India

i have recently discovered that the barbs i have are now on the "Threatened" list of animals and i am wondering if anyone has any tricks to get fish to spawn. these fish will in the next year have gone up 4x. for this reson i would like to try and get some offspring. a year ago these fish were 20 a piece this year they are 50 and still rising.

They have a very high mortality rate as they ship poorly and have not been recorded as mating in captivity. ANY IDEAS. with my other barbs all i had to do was pour chilled water during a top up to simulate rain and they would mate for the next 36 hours. this doesnt work for these fish.

just a link to a pick. i cant get a pck as they are lightning fast.

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Puntius_denisonii.php

[Keri]

I don't do it on purpose but my gold barbs spawn on their own (and babies survive) probably because at least 1/4 of my tank is one huge clump of javamoss, it encourages spawning and serves as a nursery for the fry. The rest of my tank is heavily planted as well, and I feed them very well.

I have heard that introducing live prey (ie: brine shrimp) can encourage spawning behavior. Good luck!!

[tang daddy]

I use to have 11 in a 75g planted they never bred although I never tried... breeding babies is one thng keeping them alve and not eaten is another.
If you've ever kept these fish you'll know what I mean they eat anything from black beard algae to mysis, brine and even plants java moss wont stop them from breaching as they're like torpedos and can penetrate the thickest of bush.

Have you tried doing a search to see if these will breed in captivity?

[ElGuappo]

its been done in india recently, but not very well documented from what i have found. i followed links to all kinds of crazy boards in india and such. also i am not sure if they have reached sexual maturity yet as they are barely 2 years. I had an insane time triing to get them to eat. took almost 6 monthes the get all them eating. lost 4 in the process. i have never had such finiky fish in my life. i have noticed them eating the java moss and hornwart. they love daphnia and blood worms.

In the long run they are just barbs and i had great succes with my golds, oddesssa, and tigers in the past. going to rescape the tank with more, taller plants, and have a a forest of moss. maybe i'll try and build some sort of rain maker for a cold water top up. this seemed to work real well with other barbs in the past. all i had to do with the other barbs was a cold water top up and they would breed for 2 days after every time. i am thinking of a series of pvc with a resivoir to slowly drip. i have also thought about really jacking up the flow to simulate thier "mountain stream" habitat.

[BlueAbyss]

Hmm, I would think cooler conditions and much higher flow would simulate spring melts in mountain streams. Have you thought of building a tank that simulates a cool river?

[ElGuappo]

Well tday for the first time i have seen behavior that resembes breeding. i havent been able to find any eggs but at least the behavior is starting to show up.

[BlueAbyss]

Awesome, good job! What have you done to induce this?

[365seasons]

Let us know if you can figure it out. We've got a couple of them too, although we know them as Rosaline Sharks. Took us a bit to realize that this thread was about the same.

It's weird you had so much trouble getting yours to eat. Ours have been pigs since day one, and eat anything under the sun.

Anyways, will definitely follow along this thread. Really exciting to see that you're trying to breed them.

As for ideas, we don't have many apart from what people have already suggested but glad to hear that they are starting to display signs. =)

[ElGuappo]

well i did a serious waterchange and cold water top off. re aquascaped the whole tank( because i destroyed it tryin to get a pleco out. )

i have recently read that they will be more likely to breed in larger numbers. i have a total of 5. they were wid caught in india and ony 5 of the 9 i bought survived. (i did get refunded) as none of them would take to anything. as of now the 2 year + period they will only eat daphnia and nls pellets. i still try flake blood worms brine someties but they will ony pic at mysis. they do however LOVE live brine.

i recently came accross this page and found it to be more informative than most.

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Puntius&species=denisonii&id=177


Yes they are also more commenly called roseline sharks, red flash sharks,

[BlueAbyss]

Interesting. Well, I hope you succeed with them, they are very cool fishes... I love the larger barb species.

[Rahim101]

If you ever do have any luck breeding them or decide to sell the adults, you have a willing person here to buy them....LOL