Description: Spawning Rosy Barb fish may not be an easy thing to do for beginners, but with the right techniques, you can spawn them like a veteran fish keeper.
Freshwater Rosy Barbs are one of the most commonly available and popular fish among fish keeper hobbyists. They are known for their colorful bodies and active behavior. Due to their popularity, you may start to wonder if you can spawn them on your own instead of buying more of them from the pet shop. Spawning Rosy Barb fish is quite easy, but it needs a few preparations and techniques.
Preparations
In order to spawn Rosy Barbs, you need to prepare a separate breeding tank with the right conditions that they prefer. Rosy Barbs breed in shallow waters, a tank with a depth of 60 cm will do.
However, the recommended tank size is 30 gallons or 114 liters, and it needs to be filled with fresh water with a pH around 6 – 8 and the water temperature should be around 22 – 25 degrees Celsius.
You must also attach the tank with a water filter and an air pump to supply oxygen for the Rosy Barbs. Also do not forget to close the tank with a lid. Female Rosy Barbs also need plants to lay their eggs. You can use the same plants that you have in your main aquarium, such as Java Fern and Hornwort.
Techniques
• Select the males and females
Once the breeding tank is ready, you need to select the Rosy Barbs that you want to breed. You need to look for bright or strong colored ones, and with a size of 2.5 inches or 6.35 cm.
mature male Rosy Barbs have a reddish color and slenderer than females, the females remain smaller than males but chubbier. The mature female Rosy Barbs are more olive, yellow, and gold, they lack the reddish color the males have. The recommended ratio for spawning Rosy Barbs are of one male for every two females.
• Put the fish in a breeding tank
After selecting the Rosy Barbs, put them in your breeding tank with a total of 10 to prevent overcrowding, but not less than 6 fishes to prevent fin nipping behavior. The breeding starts when the male Rosy Barb chases the female around the tank and repeatedly nudging her belly and head.
• Remove fish once the eggs are released
Once the female is fertilized, she will head to the plants and release her eggs. After releasing her eggs, you must immediately remove all the Rosy Barbs and put them back to the main tank because they will eat them.
The eggs will hatch after 30 – 36 hours, the newly hatched Rosy Barbs will swim freely in the breeding tank. You still have to separate them from mature fishes and keep them in the breeding tank until they are mature enough.
• Pay attention to the hatchlings
From here, you just need to pay close attention to the newly hatched Rosy Barb’s diet and tank environment. Regarding the diet, you cannot feed them with normal adult dry fish foods until they are at least a few weeks old or until they are big enough to eat them. You need to feed them with infusoria and liquid fry fish food at least 3 times a day.
• Clean the water regularly
Pay close attention to uneaten food. Clean them immediately because it will make the water go foul and lower the baby Rosy Barb’s chance of surviving. They need clean water in order to survive.
Are you interested in spawning Rosy Barbs on your own? They are quite easy to spawn for beginners. Do give it a try, you will succeed as long as you are doing it right! Good luck!
References:
https://www.thesprucepets.com/rosy-barb-1378467
https://www.fishkeepingworld.com/rosy-barb/
https://thefishdoctor.co.uk/breeding-rosy-barbs/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosy_barb