Puntius titteya, the Cherry Barb

Puntius titteya (Cherry Barb). The Cherry Barb is a small barb (up to 2 in.) that might not be comfortable in the rowdier company of a mixed barb tank. It is gentler and more retiring than many and will choose the spots that are shaded by some floating plants. Far from being a shoaling fish, P. titteya take up a temporary station under a leaf, from which they dart out into the open, or forage in the gravel. Females are as aggressive as males in giving each other chase. Male Cherry Barbs continually harass one another in barb fashion, but fins are never shredded. 
 
My very soft water and plenty of live blackworms keep them in spawning color. If your tank is less than 20 gallons and perhaps not as densely planted as it might be, usually it's the dominant male who will really be showing the glowing crimson red for which you're keeping them. Females keep a bright copperyline above the warm black stripe; their backs are dark, their bellies creamy white, with some black edgings to scales. A fully ripe females will tip slightly sideways to display her rounded white belly. For each male Cherry Barb provide two or three of the less colorful females. But don't keep fewer than that.
 
 
P. titteya was described for science in 1929 by the well-known Sri Lankan ichthyologist P.E.P. Deraniyagala. 
 
Cherry Barbs are omnivorous, constantly tasting the substrate with their delicate barbels. Like all barbs, Cherry Barbs will munch on your prized vegetation if you don't keep them constantly supplied with greens or green substitutes, like algae wafers. Puntius titteya was "Red Listed" as vulnerable by IUCN in 2007, and you keep hearing rumors that's it's extinct in its home waters. Kai-Erik Witte posted  at the Aquatic Conservation Network mailing-list, 30 Sept 1996, "'Extinction' as announced by aquarium fish exporters usually translates into 'our local collector(s) don't catch them any more, or the numbers are too low to make enough profit". Apparently the Cherry Barb is still locally abundant in the very restricted habitats where it's found, in creeks at the base of foothills in southwestern Sri Lanka, one of the island's three ichthyofaunal provinces; but only ten small localities were identified by Rohan Pethiyagoda in 1991.
 
These are deep forest fishes, from shallow, clear, clean shaded forest pools and small waterways with gentle currents. Agricultural pollution and watershed despoliation are more threatening to them than collecting for aquarium trade export. Sri Lankan laws prohibit their export, not that any Sri Lankans would let that stand in their way, but fortunately all our stocks are now captive bred. Of the elegant small Sri Lankan barbs headed for extinction, Puntius cumingi is the one I see least often on the market now. You'll find a link to a report about Sri Lanka's modest fish farming culture in the page about Puntius nigrofasciatus.
 
In its clear upland streams P. titteya is a serial spawner, repeated bouts of spawning throughout the year. Even if you don't take the pains to protect the eggs and raise the fry, Cherry Barbs are very willing to spawn for you. The night I first wrote this I'd spent several hours watching two males and four females spawning in a densely-planted 10-gallon tank. Do the males drive the females, as male aquarists have always described it, or is it the females who test male vigor by leading them on? I've noticed that females full of roe are subtly intolerant of one another in the lead up to spawning. Feinting and dashing, the males follow closely through every twist and turn among the plants, rising from behind to nudge the females' vents. Together they dive through thick tangles of Java Moss and deposit eggs that are too small for me to see. Though the females also eat eggs, the males are especially avid in hunting them down and eating them in the intervals between spawning runs, and the males take some moments out too for brief bouts of competitive sparring. In breeding dress they are suffused with strong cherry red, and their black lateral stripe fades. The ripe females show a tinge of red in every fin, but especially the anal fin, with its hairline black border, and their shining white bellies are prominent. 
 
Puntius titteya at FishBase. Puntius titteya at Wikipedia.