The rosy barb (Pethia conchonius) was first brought to Germany in 1903 and has since developed into a worldwide classic among ornamental fish. It is one of the 100 most commonly traded species. They are hardly ever wild-caught, although these fish are so common in their native country India that they are traded in large quantities as food fish at traditional fish markets, despite their small size of usually only 5-6 cm (maximum length: 8 cm). As the saying goes: Every little helps…
Nowadays it is rare to find wild-colored animals, i.e. those in which the males have a green back, a red body and black fin tips in the dorsal, ventral and anal fins, while the females are silvery and only have pale pink fins. In the breeding forms “Neon Red”, “Neon Green”, “Super Red”, Blood Red” and “Gold”, the fish start to change color at a younger age and the females are more colorful; all breeding forms are also available with veil fins.
Now we once again have wild-colored animals from domestic breeding in our stock, as our great-grandparents already knew them and as they already inspired in Kaiser Wilhelm’s time! Rosy barbs are absolutely contemporary fish, as they do not need additional heating in the aquarium in living rooms. Their natural temperature tolerance is between 14 and 28°C, whereby drastic temperature changes should of course be avoided. Rosy barbs will eat any common ornamental fish food and any drinking water from the tap is suitable for keeping them. Delicate aquatic plants are nibbled on. Rosy barbs should not be combined with long-finned and calm fish, as the lively and playful, often even pushy rosy barbs are unsuitable for this.
By the way: from a scientific point of view, our rosy barbs are probably not P. conchonius at all. More information on this topic can be found here: https://www.aqualog.de/blog/pethia-conchonius-114-jahre-prachtbarben-im-aquarium-und-kein-bisschen-weiser/ (unfortunately only available in German). We have also made a small film about these fish, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGp29yZvbGM
For our customers: the wild-colored animals have code 369224 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
