Puntius narayani - Narayan Barb

Cyprinidae

The only information we've been able to find states that this species is restricted to the River Cauvery drainage. The Cauvery flows through the southern Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Most commonly found in flowing sections of hill streams and smaller rivers, where it tends to congregate in backwater pools or deeper areas with lower flow.

Around 3" (7.5cm).

Very active and deserves a tank measuring at least 36" x 12" x 12"/90cm x 30cm x 30cm/85 litres.

Fairly undemanding provided its tank is well-maintained but will probably appear a little washed out in very sparsely decorated set-ups though. A combination of subdued lighting and a dark substrate will encourage it to show its best colours. It's should look excellent in a heavily planted set-up decorated with pieces of bogwood, twisted roots and patches of floating vegetation.

It's also likely to thrive in a set-up dedicated to the replication of a flowing stream. Use a sand or gravel substrate, and scatter some smooth, water-worn rocks of varying sizes around the tank. An external canister or internal power filter with the outlet placed at the water surface, aiming down the length of the tank would provide the desired high levels of oxygenation and flow. An additional powerhead could also be used if you wish, or a rivertank manifold could be installed.

The tank can be further furnished with driftwood branches and aquatic plants for aesthetic value, although the vast majority of plant species will fail to thrive in such turbulent conditions. Possibilities include hardy species such as Java fern, Bolbitis or Anubias species. These can be grown attached to the décor.

72 - 79°F/22 - 26°C

6.5 - 7.5

5 - 15°H

Like many barbs it's a generalised omnivore in nature feeding on a variety of worms, insects, crustaceans, plant matter and other organic debris. In the aquarium it's just as easily-fed and will greedily accept just about anything offered. For the best condition and colours offer regular meals of small live and frozen foods such as bloodworm, Daphnia and Artemia, along with good quality dried flakes and granules. Try to make sure it receives some greenstuffs in its diet as it's reported to feed quite heavily on plant materials in nature.

Best kept with other stream-dwelling Asian species such as Danio, Devario, Barilius, Garra and balitorine loaches. This would make for a very interesting biotope-style setup. That said provided its requirements can be met it can be mixed with most peaceful fish too large to be considered food.

Try to buy a group of at least 8-10 specimens. This is a species that is found swimming in large schools in nature. Keeping it in numbers in the aquarium will allow it to exhibit its natural behaviour as well as providing a more attractive spectacle. The interaction between rival males is also interesting to watch.

Mature males tend to be noticeably slimmer than females and exhibit slightly stronger colouration.

Quite easily bred, although you'll need to set up a separate tank in which to do so if you want to raise any numbers of fry. Something around 18" x 12" x 12"/45cm x 30cm x30cm in size is usually recommended. This should be very 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 water should be around neutral pH, gH <8, with a slightly raised temperature of 75 - 80°F. A small air-powered sponge filter bubbling away very gently is all that is needed in terms of filtration.

Puntius narayani is best spawned in pairs. Under this technique, the fish can be either conditioned in male and female groups in separate tanks or as a group. When the females are noticeably full of eggs and the males are displaying their best colours, select the fattest-looking female and best coloured male and transfer them to the spawning tank in the evening. Another method of pair selection can be to observe the group of fish closely and watch for a single pair of fish separating from the school to spawn. These are then netted and placed in the breeding tank. Either way they should spawn the following morning. Be sure to provide plenty of cover for the female as the male will be quite aggressive in his pursuit of her. In some cases she may even require a period of rehabilitation in a tank that does not contain any males. An SF member who has spawned the species recommends being present at all times during the process in order to separate the pair as soon as spawning has occured, so aggressive are the males towards their partners.

The adults will eat the eggs given the chance and should be removed as soon as spawning has ended. The eggs will hatch in 24 - 48 hours with the fry becoming free swimming 24 hours or so later. These should be fed on an infusoria-type food for the first few days, until they are large enough to accept microworm or Artemia nauplii. This seems to be a particularly fecund species with over 650 fry being recorded from a single spawn.

Puntius narayani can initially be tricky to distinguish from other similarly-patterned species such as P. cumingii , P. phutunio and some forms of P. ticto . The most obvious defining characteristic is the presence of three (vs. two in the other species) dark markings/vertical bars on the flanks of the fish. The first of these appears in front of the dorsal fin, the second directly under the dorsal fin and the third above the posterior part of the anal fin.

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, P. gelius , P. macrogramma, P. manipurensis, P. meingangbii, P. nankyweensis, Puntius 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 being somewhat variable: "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. Dahanukar, N., R. Raut and A. Bhat. - J. Biogeogr 31: 123-136. 2004
   Distribution, endemism and threat status of freshwater fishes in the Western Ghats of India.
2. www.petfrd.com
3. www.fishbase.org