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Common Name: Cherry Barb
Scientific Name: Barbus titteya (also:
Puntius titteya,
Barbus Frenatus)
Distribution: Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia - Kelani to Niwala basins.
Habitat: Heavily shaded, slow moving streams found in the plains of Sri Lanka
Size: To 2 inches
Diet: Omnivorious; Flake food, small live and frozen foods, vegetables (blanched cucumber and zucchinni). Mine like to munch on the green algae I have in my tank. They also go absolutley crazy for bloodworms.
Tank Layout: There should be alot of cover, preferably making the tank bottom darker. These fish prefer shade and cover in their native home. Foilage along the edges of the tank is good, with some free swimming space in the middle of the tank.
Tank Size: A bare minumum of 10 gallons. A bigger tank size is often preached for this barb, because of its active nature.
Tank Zone: Mostly the middle of the tank, but I have obseved my barbs investigating the top of the tank, and even scavenging the bottom of the tank for fallen food.
Temperament: Peaceful for the most part. My male occasionally chases the other females around, but nothing drastic. They don't school as tightly as some of the other barbs. Because of this, cherry barbs are good candidates to be kept in pairs. These fish have shown no aggression to other fish and invert species I have kept them with them in the past.
Lifespan: 5 years
Chemistry:
-pH: 6.5 to 7.5
-Hardness:4 to 18 dGH
Temperature:73-79 degrees F (23-26 degrees C)
Sensitivities:Prone to bloat (See below: Other Notes)
Hardiness: Hardy. They survived my tank's initial break-in period (cycle) with the added help of Seachem's Stability.
Physical Description: In both sexes a black horizontal stripe runs through the middle of the fishs' body. The cherry barb also sports barbels like other cyprinids. The finnage of the cherry barb is a transluscent red (males have a darker red finnage than females), and its tail is of a concave shape.
Sexes: The males turn a bright red color during spawning season, and when they mature. The females are a lighter tan color, and usually are broader than the males. Males and females both have a stripe that runs horizontally across their body, but the stripe has a greater contrast on the paler females. The females also have a light brown-gold stripe that runs above the dark stripe that they have in common with the males.
Activity Peak: Diurnal
Habits: My barbs don't seem to interact with each other very much; they stick mostly to themselves. They are a very interactive species with the outside environment, however. I am always greeted by a little group of cherry barbs at the edge of the tank wall whenever I sit down to watch them or I am getting ready to feed them.
Spawning Notes: To provide optimal spawning conditions provide water with a temperature from 74 degress F to 79 degrees F, hardness to 12 dGH, and a pH from 6.0 to 6.5. One to three eggs are laid at a time, and be sure to remove the fish once they have finished spawning as they are notorious egg eaters. The eggs will hatch in 24 hours and become free swimming after 2 days. The eggs are attached on strands to plants, so vegetation is a must.
Personal Experiences and Observation: I often watch my barbs as they swim in and out of the vegetation that I have in my tank. For this reason I say that plants are a big plus when keeping these fish. They seem to enjoy weaving in and out of the plants, and I also find them scavenging for food on and around the plants after a feeding.
Other Notes: Be sure to wet the food thoroughly when feeding them floating food such as flakes, preferably makng the food sink below the surface. I have found that when my barbs hit the surface too much to retrieve food, they become bloated and start to float towards the surface uncontrollably. Although this has always gone away in my fish and never proved fatal, I certainly wouldn't risk it.
Female Cherry Barb:
Male Cherry Barb:
