Tiger Barbs Fish
As Capoeta tetrazona, the tiger barb (once called the "Sumatranus" because it came from Sumatra), is the most popular of the barbs, we 'shall describe its peculiarities fully.
If a person had heard the name "zebra fish" without knowing which fish bore that name, he would most likely assume it belonged to C. tetrazona. C. tetrazona is striped something like a zebra, having four narrow bands of dark pigment running vertically completely around its body and head. It is gaily colored with yellow and red, though these colors tend to fade as the fish reaches maturity. Specimens that are over 2 inches in length and over 1 inch deep are not uncommon.
Since the C. tetrazona is a fast-swimming fish that drops sticky eggs when spawning, dense clumps of Nitella and similar plants must be provided to hold the eggs.
Sex in these barbs is easily distinguished. The female gets much broader and rounder than the male, and while she loses much color, the male increases in color and develops a red nose.
Seasoning for the female must take place in the breeding tank. Select the largest female and place her in the spawning tank. The spawning tank should be a long- type, 20-gallon size at the minimum. Feed her large quantities of tubifex and daphnia with a medicine dropper, making sure that she is able to get all the food before it gets lost in the vegetation. A small area of the tank may be left bare for this feeding purpose. The males may be conditioned in the community tank by similar processes. Live food is essential for the seasoning of the fish.
When the female seems adjusted to her conditions and she looks as though she couldn't get much larger, place two males in with her. Spawning, just as in the zebra danio, should take place in a very short time.
While the fish are spawning they should be fed daphnia by the eyedropperful. If these small crustaceans are not available, try tubifex. With luck, the fish will take the food rather than the eggs; should they elect the eggs, do not continue the feeding of live food, but try to pull out the strands of Nitella that contain the eggs. Place these strands in a beaker filled with some of the same water in which the eggs were laid. Have the beaker floating in the spawning tank so it will be readily available for the deposit of the "egged down" Nitella and be at a constant temperature. Care should be exercised not to disturb the parents in the removal of the Nitella.
C. tetrazona is a great jumper and jumps at the slightest provocation. After the spawning, when the young fish have reached swimming size, every possible precaution should be taken to prevent them from jumping out.
The spawning just described should not take more than a few interesting hours, after which the parent fish should be removed and, if necessary, the eggs carefully replaced in the spawning tank. The spawn will hatch in two days. The fry must be fed infusoria for the first few weeks. Follow this food with newly hatched brine shrimp, microworms, or finely sifted daphnia.
The optimum breeding temperature is 75° F. When the fry are about three weeks old, raise the temperature to about 78° F. The lower spawning temperature helps slightly in keeping the bacterial count down.
In the other types of barbs, such as the rosy barb (Puntius conchonius), black ruby barb (Puntius nigrofasciatus), tic-tac-toe barb (Puntius ticto), etc., sex is easily determined by the size of the female and breeding habits are the same as in Capoeta tetrazona.
