prairielilly

In my 20g I currently have 3 female cherrys and one male. I think they were mature when I bought them a few weeks ago as they were full size and the male's red colouration was fully developed. Since they went into the tank the male has been actively chasing whichever female was closest to him. The girls have lots of places to hide and everyone gets a break - I took all this behaviour as a good sign. I saw one together with the male and they were nose to tail, circling around; this was a few days after they went into the tank. Overall they all seem happy and active, swim right up to the glass whenever I come near and eat like little piggies. They swim around all the time, but don't dart crazily like if they had parasites. They have no issues with any of the other tank inhabitants.

Soooo....two of the females have a red anal fin and their other fins are gold. Then the one female has black fins. Her back is much darker than the other girls' and her belly is shaded black. So far as I remember, they all looked pretty much the same when I got them. I thought she might have velvet, but she doesn't act parasitized and neither does anyone else. She's also started to look a lot chunkier through the belly in the last week and she will chase the other females whenever they come near one certain corner of the tank.

Water parameters: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, temp 79 F.

The last cherry barbs I had unfortunately didn't live long enough for me to know if changes in colouration and shape are 'normal' (they died in a disease outbreak). Is she egg laden? lay eggs already and is trying to 'guard' them? sick? NORMAL? Has anyone else seen this in their cherrys? I tried taking some pictures but she doesn't stay still very much so they're a little blurry. She behaves normally I think but I get concerned when my fish start changing colour I'd appreciate your feedback (sorry for the longish post)!

Attached Images

	DSC00475.JPG (482.2 KB, 63 views)
	DSC00476.JPG (483.0 KB, 65 views)
	DSC00477.JPG (460.5 KB, 61 views)

Amanda

It looks like she's going to lay eggs...but I don't have any experience with barbs.
Hopefully someone will be around soon.

Barbrella

I've been keeping cherries for a very long time, and from your descriptions everything sounds normal for your fish.

Females can have variation in their colours, and will get round when filled with eggs.

Barbs are egg scatterers. The eggs do not stick to anything and barbs do not guard their eggs. They eat them, so you'll be very lucky if you ever see any babies in your tank.

Spawning behavior is often most intense after a large water change. During actual spawning, male and female will go right into the plants and you'll see both shaking as the female releases the eggs and the male fertilizes them.

Adding another male (if you have a big enough tank) would make things even more interesting. The males get even redder when they occasionally spar with other and the girls get a rest during the competitions. They don't hurt each other!

Hope this helps!

prairielilly

Thanks so much, I appreciate the feedback.

I had thought that the black colouration was 'black spot' or velvet. After noticing the male cherry, my oto and my dwarf gourami all had white stringy poo I medicated the tank with Jungle's Anti-Parasite fizz tabs. Unfortunately I lost the oto.

A week later there's no more white stringy poo from anyone and all fish are active and healthy and eating well. The one female is still black. However, that's the only 'anomalous' thing going on atm, and from what you've said Barbrella that's nothing to worry about.

I have some panda cories in QT that will soon go into the tank, and then in the near future hope to add another female and a male cherry. All appears to be well and even getting better

Thanks again!

Barbrella

Is that the female in the pic you posted? She doesn't look black there....she shouldn't be actually black.

Glad you got the parasite problem fixed!

Here's a pic of one of my female barbs for comparison with yours. I've had her nearly 2 years so I know she's healthy.

Attached Images

barbsmalefemalejune29.jpg (28.5 KB, 59 views)

prairielilly

I don't mean black like a black molly...I mean the other girls have gold or red fins, and this one's fins are translucent goldish-black, and her back and belly are much darker than the others'. Her belly especially looked like she dragged it in soot. But like you say, it's normal for there to be different variations in colour. I can't really remember if she's always been like that or not. She acts just fine, so I'm no longer worried about her.

Thanks for the advice, and for posting the picture (you take really nice pictures - I can't get mine to stay still long enough!) I had been a little concerned that their gills always seem a bit red, but I know some species have really translucent skin over their gills so it's nothing to worry about. I wasn't sure if that was true of cherrys, but yours are like that too and they look wonderful. I hope mine live two years too (or longer!) I guess all's well!

Barbrella

Yes, my females have a little "blush" patch on their gill coverings too. I really don't know about the sooty spots on your female, but hope it may be a normal colouration for her. BTW, your tank looks heavily planted and they really love that.

I know how hard it is to get pics of them. The secret is to take a LOT. Out of 2 dozen, I might get one really good one.

I just love Cherries and think they're often passed over at pet stores because they always look washed out and insignificant there.

Thought you might like seeing a pic of my two males sparring and the intense red colour (which rivals any species) they obtain when they have some competition!

Attached Images

barbsfighting2.jpg (52.7 KB, 56 views)

prairielilly

Thanks Barbrella - always great to find out something's actually OK and normal I had been trying to decide whether to get a) two more females, b) one male one female, or c) stop - don't overstock! I think I'll be OK with 2 more barbs (plus the original 4, my dwarf gourami and 3 panda cories) in my 20g. A little too many fish-inches, however right now my nitrates never go above 5, and cories help with cleaning out any missed food. I think it would be great to have two males and watch them spar!

The tank background helps a lot with the illusion of it being heavily planted...my first round at keeping an aquarium (Oct '08) I had so many plastic plants in there, there was no free gravel anywhere. I thought that would reduce stress. What it did was make it impossible to clean. Now there's 7 silk plants and 3 pieces of driftwood - that's it (see link in signature for better pictures). They all seem pretty happy though and there's lots of places to hide.

Well the Parasite Clear course is done and guess what! the one female no longer has sooty marks on her belly. I really don't know what's going on or how to explain this. She's still darker than the rest but now her belly's bright white just like the others'. One of the other girls was possibly rubbing on the plants this morning - I don't know if she actually was or just eating algae - I'm quite likely just being paranoid. I lost all my fish to gill fluke a few months' back and I'm still a little hyper-reactive to whether or not they're flicking or rubbing. I just changed out 30% of the water with a really good vacuum and put some carbon in the filter as per protocol for finishing up meds, and all's well at the moment (definitely no rubbing right now, and I really really hope none in the future!) Hopefully keeping their water super clean and qt-ing all new arrivals will keep them disease free