Puntius tambraparniei - Arulius Barb

Cyprinidae

According to Pethiyagoda and Kottelat (2005) this species is restricted to the middle section of the Tambraparni River basin. This river arises in the Western Ghat mountains and flows through the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, eventually emptying into the Gulf of Mannar. However most of the fish available in the trade are likely to be commercially-produced for the purpose.

Inhabits both the main river channel and some of its tributaries.

Around 4"/10cm.

It´s a particularly active species and a group would need a tank measuring a bare minimum of 48" x 12" x 12"/120cm x 30cm x 30cm/108 litres.

Fairly undemanding provided its tank is well-maintained. It can appear a little washed out in very sparsely decorated set-ups though. A combination of good lighting and a darkish substrate will encourage it to show its best colours. Being a predominantly riverine species it does best in very clean, well-oxygenated water with a degree of flow, and can look quite superb in a set-up decorated with smooth rocks, twisted roots and live plants.

66 - 77°F/19 - 25°C

6.0 - 8.0.

2 - 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 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.

This species makes an ideal addition to a peaceful community of slightly bigger southeast Asian species, such as other similarly-sized Puntius, larger rasboras and danionins, botiine loaches and gouramis of the genus Trichogaster. If geography is not an issue it can actually be combined with most peaceful fish of a size too large to be considered food and with a bold enough disposition to not be intimidated by its size and active nature.

It's a schooling species by nature, and really should be kept in a group of at least 8-10 specimens. Maintaining it in decent numbers will not only make the fish less skittish, but will result in a more effective, natural looking display. Any aggressive behaviour will normally also be contained as the fish concentrate on maintaining their hierarchical position within the group.

Tricky to sex when juvenile but adult males are more colourful and slimmer than females, as well as developing extended dorsal ray filaments. Males in breeding condition exhibit noticeable white tubercules around the mouthparts.

Quite easily-bred, although you'll need to set up a separate tank in which to do so if you want to raise any decent numbers of fry. Something around 30" x 12" x 12" in size is usually recommended. This should be very dimly lit and contain clumps of fine-leaved plants such as Java moss or Myriophyllum (spawning mops could also be used) 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 of around neutral pH, gH <8, with a temperature of around 75 - 80°F. A small air-powered sponge filter bubbling away very gently is all that is needed in terms of filtration.

It can be spawned in a group, with half a dozen specimens of each sex being a good number. Condition these with plenty of small live foods and spawning should not present too many problems. Depending on your setup, simply check the spawning medium or tank base each morning for eggs.

Alternatively it can be spawned in pairs. Under this technique, the fish are conditioned in male and female groups in separate tanks. 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. They should spawn the following morning.

In either situation, the adults will eat the eggs given the chance and should be removed as soon as eggs are noticed. These will hatch in 24 - 48 hours, with the fry becoming free swimming 24 hours later. They 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 species is quite fecund, and up to 2000 eggs can be produced from a single spawning event.

Puntius tambraparniei was considered to be a subspecies of P. arulius  (Puntius arulius tambraparniei) by Jayaram, but is now known to be a distinct species. It has recently been the subject of a debate regarding its true identity. "Puntius arulius " has been a popular aquarium fish for many years, but a 2005 revision of the so-called P. filamentosus  group by Maurice Kottlelat and Rohan Pethiyagoda appears to suggest a case of mistaken identity. This group contains a handful of south Indian and Sri Lankan barb species that share similar morphological characteristics and currently contains P. arulius , P. assimilis , P. exclamatio, P. filamentosus , P. singhala, P. srilankensis and Puntius tambraparniei. In the review P. arulius  is described as "lacking branched dorsal-fin rays elongated into filaments in adult males" and possessing relatively short maxillary barbels. This description was clearly at odds with the fish we have long known as P. arulius , as males develop magnificent trailing filaments to the dorsal fin and both sexes have quite long maxillary barbels.

As it happened the paper was published soon after the UK had received imports of an arulius-type fish that was being imported and sold as Puntius tambraparniei and which lacked extended dorsal filaments in males. However the distinguishing features of Puntius tambraparniei were given as follows in the Pethiyagoda and Kottelat paper:

"Adults of Puntius tambraparniei are distinguished from P. filamentosus , P. singhala and P. assimilis  by having prominent black markings on body anterior to the anal-fin origin. They differ from P. exclamatio by lacking a horizontally-elongate, tear-shaped black blotch above the anal fin. Puntius tambraparniei differs from P. srilankensis by having lower lip entire (vs. medially absent). It differs from P. arulius  by having branched dorsal rays elongated into filaments in adult males (vs. dorsal fin concave and emarginate) and by having a pair of maxillary barbels 2.4-4.7% of SL (vs. <0.5%)."

It therefore seems that the fish sold for decades as P. arulius  is in fact Puntius tambraparniei, and the recently imported Puntius tambraparniei are actually the true P. arulius ! P. arulius  can thus be considered quite a rare species in the hobby, with all those fish on sale as "Arulius barb" likely to be Puntius tambraparniei.

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. Pethiyagoda, R. and M. Kottelat. - Raffles Bull. Zool. Suppl. 12:127-144. 2005
   A review of the barbs of the Puntius filamentosus group (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) of southern India and Sri Lanka.
2. www.petfrd.com
3. www.fishbase.org