Sad news about redline Denisonii barbs

Someone needs to figure out how to start breeding these but no one seems to know the trick. Apparently is has happened in aquarium conditions but rarely.


"Is it time to stop buying Puntius denisonii?"
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With the current information about farm breeding being successful I am still skeptical about purchasing these barbs and wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Very beautiful fish.

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The ones I supply at Aquarium Co-Op are captive bred. Lots of fish that are sold in the pet stores use hormones.

To name a few:
Clown loaches. Also never been bred without hormones.
Black Ghost knives. Also never been red without hormones.
Almost all peacocks you see at a pet store have been raised with hormones.
Same with German Blue Rams

There is also the problem of not buying wild caught fish. If we stop buying wild caught Cardinal tetras. The natives that make their living off of that are forced to produce palm oil. The studies show that this will be much more devastating to the environment then the harvesting of the cardinal tetras.

There are many facets to ornamental fish. Information is always good. But be careful what is considered right and wrong. It's a very complex problem with not an easy answer. There are groups and efforts that are trying to teach developing countries where they catch wild caught fish to breed them instead. This is a long and slow process. As it's much easier to catch your 2000 cardinal tetra limit each day than produce that many.

Wow, there is no easy answers..... Dang....

I remember a recent newsletter for The Wet Spot talking about these fish. They too were selling captive bred roseline's.

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:The ones I supply at Aquarium Co-Op are captive bred. Lots of fish that are sold in the pet stores use hormones.

To name a few:
Clown loaches. Also never been bred without hormones.
Black Ghost knives. Also never been red without hormones.
Almost all peacocks you see at a pet store have been raised with hormones.
Same with German Blue Rams

There is also the problem of not buying wild caught fish. If we stop buying wild caught Cardinal tetras. The natives that make their living off of that are forced to produce palm oil. The studies show that this will be much more devastating to the environment then the harvesting of the cardinal tetras.

There are many facets to ornamental fish. Information is always good. But be careful what is considered right and wrong. It's a very complex problem with not an easy answer. There are groups and efforts that are trying to teach developing countries where they catch wild caught fish to breed them instead. This is a long and slow process. As it's much easier to catch your 2000 cardinal tetra limit each day than produce that many.

This was a Wetspot article about the Roseline Shark and their captive bred fish and probably the same sources as Cory's
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And one of the groups working on long term solutions to these types of problems
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DMD123 wrote:I remember a recent newsletter for The Wet Spot talking about these fish. They too were selling captive bred roseline's.

Jinx...   

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:SNIP
Same with German Blue Rams

I was under the impression blue rams were fairly decent breeders without hormones. Is this incorrect?

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:There is also the problem of not buying wild caught fish. If we stop buying wild caught Cardinal tetras. The natives that make their living off of that are forced to produce palm oil. The studies show that this will be much more devastating to the environment then the harvesting of the cardinal tetras.

Two thoughts on this. The first being many health organizations are working to fight the use of palm oil. I think making the public more aware could combat the use. If its not widely used it wont be profitable, thus wont be farmed. The second thought is in my opinion the extinction of a species is not worth keeping farmers from producing farm oil. This logic is self defeating as once the fish are gone they will produce palm oil anyways. Tough gig no matter what you do.

Aquarium Co-Op wrote: There are groups and efforts that are trying to teach developing countries where they catch wild caught fish to breed them instead. This is a long and slow process. As it's much easier to catch your 2000 cardinal tetra limit each day than produce that many.

Sadly the only fix I can think of is to raise the fish or ban altogether the importation/possesion of the species. Its not the greatest for us in the aquarium world but I dont think losing such a beautiful species is worth a few aquarists amusement.

Chiisai wrote:
in my opinion the extinction of a species is not worth keeping farmers from producing farm oil. This logic is self defeating as once the fish are gone they will produce palm oil anyways.  Tough gig no matter what you do.

Sadly the only fix I can think of is to raise the fish or ban altogether the importation/possesion of the species. Its not the greatest for us in the aquarium world but I dont think losing such a beautiful species is worth a few aquarists amusement.

   with you Chiisai

If Cory is selling captive bred Roselines, the moment I can afford them I will get them.

Another thing, Cardinal tetras are prolific in the wild. Denison Barbs are becoming endangered. That makes a huge difference.

anyone seen the gold form of roselines? I can in fact say they are being bred in large numbers overseas I'll see if I can get a pic or vid of them all the golds are captive bred.

MikeB wrote:anyone seen the gold form of roselines? I can in fact say they are being bred in large numbers overseas I'll see if I can get a pic or vid of them all the golds are captive bred.

Ive only seen them in pictures. If remembered correctly someone told me they are so expensive no store will bring them in.

As of 3 months ago. The gold form of roseline sharks were $93 each wholesale cost + shipping.

As for hormones with german blue rams. Most rams you see have not had hormones to breed them. Just raised from tiny fry with hormones in the water so they color up early and can be sold earlier.

As to palm oil. While yes palm oil is bad. That's not the answer either. Another market that is bad in the area is charcoal. Chop trees down, burn them to make charcoal, then sell it so people can use it to cook. This is just as bad really. The real answer there is if you take away someone's way to make a living you need to replace it with something. The goal is that it would have less of an impact on the environment than the fish farming to begin with.

The real sad truth is. What the natives are doing is nothing in comparison to what the non natives are doing. Many big businesses have moved in to "help" them by giving them jobs etc. Well the reality is they are exporting the soy etc. This is just ruining the land to take the end product out of the country.

Oliver Lucanis gave a talk at the GSAS about the Amazon and really shed some light on what it's REALLY like there. For instance Goldie plecos are used for soup. So is it any worse when a family eats 5 of those for dinner tonight or they are shipped to the USA? Those kinds of things are really hard problems to tackle.

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I sincerely hope the roselines can be sustained, as they are beautiful and I've thoroughly enjoyed them in my tank. However, they are incredibly sensitive. I started dosing a little API Algaefix last week, slightly less than the prescribed amount, and now three of my five roselines are dead and a fourth is on his way out. None of my other fish were affected at all. I'm pretty devastated about it and am transitioning my aquarium "jocks" to rainbowfish. Maybe some day if the roselines are sustaining I'll try them again.

Algae killers will cause nitrogen spikes for 2 reasons. Algae consumes nitrogen. Decomposing algae releases nitrogen.