Barbus Semifasciolatus (Chinese Barb or Golden Barb)

[ALittleSalty]

I have had 3 of these barbs since they were just a mere 2cm long. I have 2 males and 1 female, I originally started with 6 but lost 3 of them after 6 months. Now it has been almost 4 years and the female is consitantly full of eggs and her and male are doing the spawning dance all the time.

My quesiton is does anyone know the requirements to get these fish to spawn. I know that they are an egg layer, the eggs are yellowish in color and will hatch within 25 hours. I have yet to see her lay the eggs even once. They are currently housed in a 20 Long with 5 glolight tetras, 1 cory cat, and 1 rubberlipped pleco. I recently had a run in with ick so the tank is still being watched carefully.

I plan on setting up my 5.5 gallon with a sponge filter, heater, light and some pvc pipes and flat rocks. Would this work as a bare bones set up?? My main tank is getting ready to be switched to a planted tank later this month, so I was maybe thinking it would be wise to set up a planted breeding tank instead. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I cant seem to find much info on these fish other than they were created through selective breeding here in the US back in the 70's. Jon

[BrianNY]

Hi Jon. I keep the female in your breeding tank alone for a while. This way you get to control when they spawn when you introduce the males. Make sense?