Breeding Clown Barb (Puntius Everetti) In The Aquarium

Location

This freshwater fish lives in slow and fast-flowing rivers, streams, creeks, the costar zone of lakes, ponds and clear waters of forest areas in Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Body description

Colour of the body varies and depends on the habitat. It may be orange, orange-gold or pink-gray. There are usually 4 dark, oval spots of different size along the lateral line. There is one-more small dot on the base of the dorsal and anal fins. This fish has 2 pairs of barbels. Male is more colourful, smaller and thinner than female.

Temperament and behaviour

This is an active fish. It lives in groups. The shoal should consist of minimum 8 fish. You may keep it with larger and peaceful species. This barb can eat smaller fish. Males are more aggressive during spawning but these behaviours remain within the group.

Aquarium decoration

An aquarium should have a dark substrate and dimmed light so the colour of the fish is brighter. The tank should be equipped with many places to hide among roots, rocks, and plants with hard leaves or fast growing (other plants will be eaten by this fish). Fish needs space to swim. You have to use an effective filtration system. Partial water changes should be done regularly.

Breeding

This is an oviparous species. It matures sexually relatively late. Breeding should be done in a separate tank with dimmed light, many of fine-leaved plants, soft water, neutral pH, temperature between 27-29°C. You can use fish hatchery too. Fish spawn in pairs. The pair should be select by pair itself. Several weeks before spawn you should separate male and female. You should feed them with plenty of food. Then you transfer the selected pair of fish to the breeding tank in the evening. Female should be noticeable thicker and male should be more colourful than usual. They should spawn next day, in the morning. Male can be very aggressive towards female when he tries to fertilize her. You have to immediately remove parents after spawning. Female lays up to 2000 eggs. Parents will eat eggs and offspring. The eggs hatch after 1-2 days. The fry starts to swim and feed one day later. The fry are sensitive to the water conditions and fluctuations in its parameters.