Drape Fin Barbs, Filament Barbs, Paradise fish and other fish that I have Bred

The Drape fin barbs are breeding non stop. I have fry ranging from freshly hatched to looking like the adults only much, much smaller. As you can see the tank is heavily planted which ensures the fry have both cover and microorganisms to eat. The barbs are housed with a male betta splendins and i see no signs of fin nipping of course the two species seldom meet in the jungle of that tank. Also in the tank is a trio of male formosa and 10 Oto cats. The otos came from the outside ponds and i figured the heavily planted tank was perfect for them and aside from the occasional egg they might eat should leave the drape fin fry alone and perhaps even breed themselves.


The Filament Barbs Spent the summer out in ponds and have seriously put on at least an inch in length and girth! The color is amazing on top of the lime green shine they have aquired pink/red high lights. The dominate male and female are more red then pink especially around the lips. The juvenile I put out with them has taken on his adult colors minus the reddish high lights. Interestingly i left two fry in the house, feeling that they were too small to sucessfully compete outside. The fry still had the typical tiger barb stripe they have when young but within hours the larger of the two had faded out his stripes, three days later he is rocking the adult colors. YOu can spot him getting chased in the video. Oddly enough these Barbs did not breed in the tubs.
                                                             
This little guy is one of the five bristle nose plecos i housed out inthe ponds with the Filament barbs this year. He is approximately 1 year old and about two inches bigger then his father yet is the sub male. Seems age wins out over size in this species. Unfortunately these guys didn't produce fry int he ponds, the dominate male did have eggs in his cave when i pulled them in and once in the new tank he immediantly went back to being a dutiful male so hopefully the eggs make it. Even their muddy brown colors were enhanced by the summer out.

On the right we have my dominate female paradise in her winter home. These guys were super productive this year. They produced ten fry, half of what they did last year, but these guys are only a year old and the fry were actually much sturdier. I was shocked to see a paradise fry in the Filement barb pond, this one was the biggest of the ten. How he made it I don't know.

Other fry spotted are black neon tetras and various live bearers. Given the tank mates i doubt the tetra fry will make it. The molly/platy/guppy fry never survive for me, must be something in the water i'm missing. I have gotten some to grow up, in fact the adults breeding now are those fry. I have also bred Kribensis.

Drape Fin Barbs Breeding Rapidly

Gave the Drape fin tank a trim the other day and was pretty shocked over the quantity of fry. There was about ten fry of various sizes hiding under some driftwood and java moss. While this number isn't huge, when you consider this tank is only a ten gallon and houses the Drape fin Barbs, a male betta splendens and a trio of least killiefish males, you'd think the fry wouldn't stand a chance. Aside from predation, you'd think they would be out competed very easily. Not to mention I've only had these guys a couple of months. It's interesting to note that the old pros in my neighborhood seem to be having issues keeping these guys alive never mind getting fry. I wish i could take credit but considering i simply through them in a ten gallon tank on my porch, it's all nature's course in this case. I think the temperature swings help to stimulate them, after all very few places in the world sees no temperature changes between day and night.

I actually believe live food int he form of micro fauna in the tank is vital to these guys. My impression of them is they meticulously search the tank for small things to and while they certainly gorge themselves at feeding times, it does not take them very long to start searching for food again. I believe they have a high metabolism and much like dragonets in the ocean require a steady stream of food. Seems like the folks around here doing the worst with them house the fish in bare tanks set ups. I would assumed a sponge filter would provide food for them but it seems not to be enough.

With this in mind i trucked down to the nearest pond and scooped up some leaf litter and muck. This gave me a starter culture of various little buggers. I'm not concerned about disease i let the culture grow for a couple weeks with water changes, giving plenty of time for unwanteds to work themselves out.Surprisingly though, as my copepod, daphnia and other critter populations increase in the bucket, mosquito larvae seem to be disappearing. Next year I'm running two buckets, one for mosquitoes and another for other critters.

The Drape Fins seem to be plant safe, though truly the tank has such dense planting i really couldn't tell the odd nibble from simple wear and tear. Obviously, after two months if they were voracious plant eaters the tank would be bare. I believe. like the larger Filament barbs I keep, they make an occasional snack of duck weed or anachris(i mean who wouldn't?) in a moderately fast growing tank you won't even notice.