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photo courtesy of Aqualand pets plus

One of the first widely bred aquarium fish, The Rosy Barb is a peaceful and widely adaptable fish for the home aquarium.

Quick stats: Listed tank sizes are the minimum Size: 5 inches (14 cm) Tank: 30 inches Strata: Bottom, middle PH: 6.5 to 7.5 Hardness: Soft to hard, dH range 2-10 Temperature: 64° to 79°F (18-26°;C) Classification: Order: Cypriniformes Suborder: Cyprinoidei Family: Cyprinidae Genera: Puntius

 

Common name:

Rosy Barb, Red Barb

Additional species photographs

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Distribution

Northern India

A fairly tall much compressed fish that seem to get taller as it ages. Females are larger and more robust.

The general color of the sides have a Yellow tinge in the female and Red hint in the Male. At breeding time the male becomes the most vivid Red. Both sexes have a Black dot edged in Gold near the beginning of the tail fin. The males Dorsal fin is edged in Black with the female only having a trace at the rear of the fin. Both sexes have shiny scales with an Olive Green color and pale centers.

An easy to care for fish the Rosy barb has a lot going for it. Feeding is never a problem as it will eat all flake frozen as well as live food. The tank should be fairly large as this like most barbs is an active swimmer and needs plenty of open spaces. Plant toward the rear and include some floating material if you desire. The Rosy will dig and forage in the gravel, so it should be fairly fine and rounded. A darker color will bring out the Rosy's coloration. Water conditions are not to critical as they will adapt to almost all variations, but they will benefit from aged water and of course the partial water changes we all make (or should be). Temperature is also not a problem as you see from the quick stats the range is large with somewhere in the middle being ideal. They spend most of their time on or near the bottom so make sure its tankmates swim near the middle or top of the aquarium to give the tank a balanced look.

Asian Blackwaters

Breeding the Rosy bard is fairly easy. The tank should be large and have a thin layer of gravel. Provide fine leafed plants for the eggs to scatter into. The water should be well aged and have a neutral pH. Place one male and two females in the tank. Spawning usually will take place in the morning and the females are the more active partners. They will chase each other around and the spawning will take place in one of the plants. The pair will wrap themselves around each other and shake until the eggs are laid. This will happen several times and the number of eggs laid can be very large. The parents are egg eaters and will eat the spawn if given the chance. Remove the trio immediately as they will start eating the eggs even during the spawning. The eggs hatch in about a day and the fry must be fed fine flake food or baby brine. Growth is rapid and the young are easy to care for. Keep up the water changes as the fry require better water than the adults.

 


Neon

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Please remember that the following comments are personal experiences and may or may not apply to your setup. Use them as guide to help better understand your fish, like us all individuals will behave differently under different circumstances.
From: Rob Date:10/23/2009 I started out with 5 Rosy barbs in a 60 gal. community tank. They shared space with 5 Tiger barbs, 5 Albino Tiger Barbs and a large Chinese Algae Eater. Almost two years later, I have one Tiger Barb, one Albino Tiger Barb, a larger Chinese Algae Eater and about 50-60 Rosy Barbs!! The Rosy's are particularly prolific. They must spawn near the intake tube of my out of tank filter, although I've never witnessed this, and the eggs get sucked into the intake tube and reside in the bottom of the filter where they hatch into fry and grow big enough to put back in the tank. You should see them schooling. Awesome!! This has proved to be an ideal breeding situation! Now what am I going to do with all these Rosy Barbs!!?? From: Andrew Givens Date:10/22/2009 I kept 5 Rosy Barbs in a 102-litre, 30" tank for many years with such tankmates as glowlight tetras, black phantoms, pencilfish, bleeding hearts, pristellas, cherry barbs, zebra danios, neon tetras and numerous corys at various times. All mixed well and the Rosy is a great fish for swimming at the front of the aquarium in midwater. Mine were never aggressive and never shy - they were the primary 'focus fish' in my aquarium for ages. From: Andy Date:7/26/2006 I have 5 Rosy barbs, 3 female, 2 male. They share a 29 gallon tank with two gold gouramis. Rather than swim together all the time, they tend to separate often. The gouramis are doing OK but they appear to be annoyed by the smaller fish, the male will swim around most of the time, but the female hides inside a tank ornament most of the time, and at times the male will stay out of sight as well. Whenever I stand close to the tank however, all of the barbs will flock to the front with the gouramis hovering behind them. They appear to be a very nosy and inquisitive fish. Again the gouramis tend to be a bit annoyed by them, but there are no fights between them. From: Armi Date:11/17/2003 Rosy Barbs are great if you have a black hair algae problem, I have 6 male rosy's who cleaned a 2 foot piece of wood covered in algae in 5 weeks. From: Jessica Date:05/02/2002 Very active and friendly with other fish. A lovely presence in any aquarium. Fun to watch. From: Christine Date:05/04/2002 My rosy barb is very aggressive. It is a male. He is eating the smaller fish. From: Jodi Date:05/22/2002 We got a Rosy Barb last Saturday and in 4 days three of the other fish in the tank are now dead. They all had parts of their tail missing. We can only conclude that the Rosy Barb is killing the other fish From: Hara Date:08/19/2002 The Rosy barbs are not aggressive when allowed to be in schools. Single fish will be aggressive. From: Chris Date:2/22/2003 Rosy barbs are great fish to watch they are only aggressive to others if you have less than 5 or 6 together and then they will happily all swim toghether. From: Nick Date:4/2/2003 They are a very peaceful fish and a great addition to any tank, they are not as aggressive in groups as they are alone. They are fine with longer fined fish to.

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