KEEPING PUNTIUS DENISONII

Puntius denisonii has been a major hit since its introduction in the early 2000’s. The fish’s beauty and minimal requirement has rocketed it to the top of the most popular fresh water fish. As such, breeding program was established to fulfill the demand of this fish. Unfortunately, even after some breeding program has been considered successful, this fish is still reported to be rarely found in their native habitat. Some internet source reported that India has banned the exploitation of this fish. I think that is great for the fish industry. Why depend on the wild catch when we can produce at our own disposal. Yes, we may need some wild stock to freshen up our brood, but that will put minimal pressure to Mother Nature if compare to our dependent to wild catch.

According to a reputed fish breeder, this fish is a very prolific breeder. Some 1000 eggs are produced each breeding. I will report the breeding program some other time. On July 7^th, 2009, I received a batch of 400 baby Puntius denisoni. I have since reared them on the diet of frozen bloodworm, frozen daphnia and shrimp pellet. I do daily water change. The fish seems to flourish nicely. The fish measure a meager 1 inch in length. I will record the progress each week. Contrary to the adult, baby fish has 3 vertical bars in their body, and the famous red line hasn’t developed yet. The yellow bar in their tail, however, has already appeared. They also already sport red marking in their dorsal fin. Some individuals also show reddish color in the snout, but no red line is visible so far.

I keep them in an aquarium measured 150x60x60(cm). I fill only ¾ part of water. I use a power head to filter the tank. I also use air pumps to have bubbles in this aquarium, so I assume that this tank has a very nice circulation. I add tetra aquasafe on each water change.

Since this fish is the first batch of my experiment on how fast can they grow, I will try to report each progress I find.