Spawning Report: Haludaria fasciata (Panda Barb)

Haludaria fasciata Breeding Report

Submitted by Patchin Crandall Curtis

See breeding report for Dawkinsia rohani as these two fish were spawned in the same breeding basket and the fry were hatched and raised together. Here are some additional notes on keeping and breeding Haludaria fasciata, known alternatively as the Panda Barb or Melon Barb.

I purchased 8 wild-caught Panda Barbs from The Wet Spot on 4/6/2018. They were added to the same 125 gallon community tank housing Rohan Barbs. There appeared to be 5 males and 3 females. One of the females was smaller and weaker than the others and eventually died. Of the 5 males, once the fish grew to sexual maturity one male was chased out of the tank and jumped to his death, one was attacked and killed, and a third was under attack having had his entire caudal fin eaten. I was able to intervene and net the deeply injured fish out and move him to a hospital tank with a little Melafix to salve his wounds. I never expected him to survive the night, but the next morning he was sitting on the bottom of the tank upright. The day after that, he was still lethargic but sitting upright a couple of inches above the bottom of the tank. By the third day after the attack he was eating, and 10 days later his caudal fin had grown back. He now lives peacefully with a breeding group of Drapefin Barbs and 2 Fire Barbs. It just goes to show you never know if a fish will be able to recover from even terrible wounds.

From this experience, I surmise that this species will not tolerate an excess of males over females. The 2 remaining males have taken up residence in two different areas of the tank and the 2 females go wherever they wish.

Sometime in late April 2018, I tried my first breeding experiment with these fish. The males were chasing the females, so I added a number of breeding mops attached to Styrofoam floats so that they hung down from the surface. The fish started spawning like crazy, but the eggs aren’t adhesive so they’d all fall to the bottom and get eaten immediately by the attentive Rohan and Rosy Barbs in the tank. Still, somehow 3 eggs escaped attention and by early May there were 3 juvenile Panda Barbs swimming around.

This last March, I decided to adopt a different spawning strategy. You can read about the breeding box strategy (recommended by Ted Judy) in the separate Rohan Barb breeding report. Below, I’ve included a short video clip of the Panda Barbs spawning on 3/10/2019, and of them enjoying a meal of infusoria on 4/1/2019 at just 3 weeks old. They’re already huge!

Spawn can be verified by Raychel Upright who observed the 55g tank of Rohan and Panda Barb babies on 5/31/2019.