Puntius gelius - Golden Dwarf Barb

Cyprinidae

This species is native to northern India and Bangladesh. Indian collectors have stated that it is quite variable in both patterning and size depending on collection locality. For example the form with clear dark markings that is most common in the trade is collected in the state of West Bengal, whereas fish from Assam apparently show much fainter patterning. Another variant known to occur close to the city of Muzaffarpur in Bihar state is said to grow considerably larger than the other forms and display a deep red colouration.

Inhabits sluggish, turbid enironments with deep substrates of mud or silt as well as flowing rivers and tributaries.

The ones most commonly seen in the trade tend to be fully-grown at only 1.6"/4cm, although some of the forms are said to reach 2"/5cm or more.

An 18" x 15" x 12"/45cm x 37.5cm x 30cm/53 litre tank is easily big enough to house a small shoal.

This species can appear a little devoid of colour if kept in sparse surroundings but makes a superb addition to the heavily-planted aquarium. This can be further decorated with twisted roots, branches, smooth rocks and stones and a few handfuls of leaf litter, if you prefer. A dark substrate is best and consider the addition of some floating vegetation to provide shade.

Said to prefer cooler water in the range 64°F - 75°F/18°C - 24°C although some keepers report it is equally happy at temperatures as high as 86°F/30°C.

Happiest in slightly acidic to neutral conditions pH 6.0 - 7.0.

1 - 10°H

It's a micropredator by nature preying on small aquatic invertebrates, crustaceans and other zooplankton. In the aquarium it proves unfussy. Feed a good quality dried product as the staple diet supplementing this with regular offerings of small live or frozen foods such as Daphnia or Artemia. This species can be quite weak on import and subsequently tricky to acclimatise to aquarium life. Small live foods are highly recommended as an initial diet, introducing the dry and frozen products as the fish become settled.

This species is incredibly peaceful but does not make an ideal community inhabitant due to its small adult size and retiring nature. It is easily intimidated by larger tankmates and will not compete well for food with them as well as being the ideal snack for many fish often kept in community aquaria. Keep it alone or in a community of other small, peaceful species such as similarly sized cyprinids and tetras, small anabantoids, freshwater shrimp, pygmy corydoras and Otocinclus. It does best in groups of at least 10 - 20 specimens.

The male is generally the smaller, more intensely-coloured fish. The female is drabber and noticeably more rounded when in spawning condition.

Quite easily bred although you'll need to set up a separate tank in which to do so if you want to raise a decent number of fry. Something around 12" x 8" x 8"/30cm x 20cm x 20cm in size is fine. This should be dimly lit and contain clumps of fine-leaved plants such as java moss or spawning mops to give the fish somewhere to deposit their eggs. Alternatively you could cover the base of the tank with some kind of mesh. This should be of a large enough grade so that the eggs can fall through it but small enough so that the adults cannot reach them. The pH should be slightly on the acidic side of neutral. Set the temperature a few degrees higher than in the conditioning tank as a raise in temperature is said to induce the fish to spawn. A small air-powered sponge filter bubbling away very gently is all that is needed in terms of filtration.

It's best spawned in pairs, conditioning the fish in a group in a separate tank. When the females are noticeably full of eggs and the males are displaying their best colours select the fattest female and best-coloured male and transfer them to the spawning tank in the evening. They should spawn the following morning with around a hundred eggs being deposited among the plants. These are laid and fertilised in small batches, usually over a period of a couple of hours. They are only weakly adhesive and under normal circumstances many will fall to the base of the tank.

The adults should be removed as soon as you spot the eggs as they will eat them given the opportunity. A magnifying glass can be useful here. They will hatch in 24-36 hours with the fry becoming free swimming after 3-4 days. At this stage begin to offer small amounts of an infusoria-type food several times per day until they are large enough to accept microworm or Artemia nauplii. Small daily water changes of 10-20% should also be performed until the fry are 3-4 months old, by which age they should be of saleable size.

There is a variant of Puntius gelius that continues to be sold in the trade as "Puntius canius/caninus". Cyprinus canius was described by Hamilton, 1822 but is currently considered to be a junior synonym of Puntius gelius. For hobbyist purposes it´s worth noting that the two forms show some marked dissimilarities with "P. canius/caninus" exhibiting black markings in the ventral fins (as opposed to clear), a more pointed head profile, larger adult size, less translucent body and more well-defined body markings when compared with the "normal" form of Puntius gelius.

This species is included in the Puntius conchonius  'group' of closely-related species as defined by Taki (1978). Members are characterised by "small adult size, fused and broad interorbital 3 + 4, well-developed lateral folds on snout, absence of rostral barbels, minute or absent maxillary barbels, osseous and serrated last unbranched dorsal fin ray, often abbreviated lateral line, a color pattern including a blotch anteriorly on the side (absent in P. conchonius  and a blotch on the caudal peduncle, and a broad pharyngeal bone characterized by pointed dorsal tip, spaced moderate-sized teeth and absence of dorsal angle" (Kullander and Fang, 2005). Current members of the group are P. conchonius , P. bandula, P. cumingii , P. didi , P. erythromycter, Puntius gelius, P. macrogramma, P. manipurensis, P. meingangbii, P. nankyweensis, P. narayani , P. nigrofasciatus , P. padamya , P. phutunio , P. punctatus, P. setnai, P. shalynius, P. stoliczkanus , P. thelys, P. tiantian, P. ticto  and P. yuensis.

The genus Puntius is currently viewed as something of a catch-all for well over 100 species of small cyprinid. Most experts agree that a full revision is required with the likely outcome that many species will be placed into new or different genera. When describing the genus in 1822 Hamilton identified the defining characteristics as: "absence or presence of maxillary only or rostral and maxillary barbels; dorsal fin with last simple ray serrate or entire, branched rays usually 8; anal fin with last simple ray entire, branched rays usually 5; lateral line complete or incomplete, lateral-line scales 17-36 in row; cephalic cutaneous papillae minute or absent; pharyngeal teeth in 3 rows, usually 2,3,5/5,3,2; colour pattern extremely variable." All the species currently in the genus are native to Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka.

The other main source of confusion with Puntius is that some authors do not recognise all the member species as such, rather following Walter Rainboth (1996) and preferring to place some into the alternative genus Systomus. Rainboth proposed that Systomus should be reinstated (it was first erected in the 19th century) as a valid genus on account of the fact that in its current state Puntius would seem to constitute a polyphyletic grouping i.e. not all of its members appear to have descended from the same common ancestor. The defining characteristics of a Systomus species are (according to Rainboth) a serrated (vs. smooth in Puntius) dorsal spine, the presence of 2 or 4 barbels (vs. always 2) and less than 12 gill rakers (vs. 12-20). SF tentatively lists all species as Puntius at present.

Literature cited

1. www.fishbase.org
2. www.petfrd.com