Puntius ticto - Ticto Barb

Cyprinidae

This species has a huge natural range. It's been recorded from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and southern China. It occurs in several major river systems, including the Mekong, Chao Phraya, Salween, Ayeyarwady and Mae Klong. Some experts say that this would appear to suggest the existence of a species complex at the very least, but no detailed study has yet been conducted.

It's said to forage in quiet, shallow marginal areas of lakes, ponds and rivers and apparently shows a preference for substrates of mud or silt. There are also records of it existing in quieter pools of hill streams. Given the size of its range it would seem sensible to assume that this species inhabits numerous different biotope types.

Said to attain 4"/10cm, but the biggest aquarium specimens tend to be closer to 2.6"/6.5cm.

It's an active species and a group would need a tank measuring at least 30" x 15" x 12"/60cm x 37.5cm x 30cm/88.5 litres.

This species can appear a little devoid of colour if kept in too sparse surroundings, but makes a superb addition to the heavily-planted aquarium or well-maintained community. A planted tank can of course be further decorated with twisted roots, branches, smooth rocks and stones. A dark substrate is best, and consider the addition of some floating plants to provide the shady conditions preferred by the fish.

Has been recorded to tolerate temperatures as low as 58°F/14°C but is best-maintained in luke-warm water at around 72 - 75°F/22 - 24°C.

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

3 - 10°H.

It's an opportunistic omnivore by nature, feeding on a variety of zoobenthos including worms, insect larvae, algae and other plant matter. Aquarium specimens are equally unfussy and will accept just about anything going. Feed a good quality dried product with added vegetable content as the staple diet, supplementing this with regular offerings of small live or frozen foods such as Daphnia or Artemia.

One of the best barbs for the 'general' community setup. It's lively, peaceful and its colours offer a pleasing contrast to those of many other species. It also lacks the nasty fin-nipping behaviour associated with some of its relatives, although the occasional rogue specimen is not unheard of. Most of the commonly available livebearers, danionins, gouramis, rasboras, tetras and peaceful bottom dwellers such as Corydoras or smaller Loricariids make good tankmates, as do other similarly-sized barbs.

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.

The male is 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 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 ticto 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.

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 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.

Puntius ticto exists in numerous colour forms, or at least several different fish have been exported and sold as this species. The main differences seem to be in the positioning of the two dark spots located on either side of the fish, the profile of the head, colouration/patterning of the fins and base body colour. There are so many variants occuring over such a wide geographical range that the group as a whole remains quite poorly studied. There is a strong possibility that some of the forms may be reclassified in the future.

Some work has already been done. For example P. stoliczkanus  was once thought of as a synonym to Puntius ticto but is currently considered a valid species. Another case is that of the "Odessa" barb which for many years was thought to be a selectively-bred strain of Puntius ticto and is now known to be a naturally-occuring fish originating from Myanmar and was officially described as P. padamya  in 2008. All of these are 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, P. narayani , P. nigrofasciatus , P. padamya , P. phutunio , P. punctatus, P. setnai, P. shalynius, P. stoliczkanus , P. thelys, P. tiantian, Puntius 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. Linthoingambi, I. and W. Vishwanath. - Zootaxa 1450: 45–56. 2007
   Two new fish species of the genus Puntius Hamilton (Cyprinidae) from Manipur, India, with notes on P. ticto (Hamilton) and P. stoliczkanus (Day).
2. www.fishbase.org
3. www.petfrd.com