Odessa Barbs
- Thread starter Barry P
- Start date
The-Wolf
Ex-LFS manager/ keeper of over 30 danio species
I've never kept them myself, so can't give you any personal experiance
but this link may guide you as to their conditions etc
http
/www.adelaideaquariums.com.au/Faqs/f...s/odsabarb.html
interstingly this is one fish that the scientific community is very divided on (as to the origins) some say they are man made and named odessa as that is where they were created, other say they are naturaly found near Odesa.
it would seem, like many barbs, they can't even decide on the genus
Barbus or Puntius
but this link may guide you as to their conditions etc
http
/www.adelaideaquariums.com.au/Faqs/f...s/odsabarb.htmlinterstingly this is one fish that the scientific community is very divided on (as to the origins) some say they are man made and named odessa as that is where they were created, other say they are naturaly found near Odesa.
it would seem, like many barbs, they can't even decide on the genus
Barbus or Puntius
I keep Odessa's and may be able to answer some questions.
One immediate thing you may want to check is their sexes. Some stores sell only male Odessas and if this is what you got you are likely to have problems fairly soon. Also, Odessas are not really aggressive (like Tigers) but they do chase each other and even with a mixed group it is better to have about six.
HTH.
One immediate thing you may want to check is their sexes. Some stores sell only male Odessas and if this is what you got you are likely to have problems fairly soon. Also, Odessas are not really aggressive (like Tigers) but they do chase each other and even with a mixed group it is better to have about six.
HTH.
Unf. no way to know.
It is perfectly normal for them to chase each other, all barbs do. But if these are all males, or mostly males, it would go from chasing to damaging. Even if the group is balanced, 4 may not be enough, since each of your smaller barbs would get chased too much. Your big one is probably a male: this is not about size, females simply do very little chasing. Small ones can be any sex.
If they are in good shape, sexing is fairly easy: males have a bright red (scarlet) stripe from the head to the tail. Should be possible at even 1" (most of mine came at 1.25" and showed colors). If you post a picture which has all of them, maybe it is possible to sex them.
If they don't show good colors after a couple of days, either something is wrong with your tank (not a real problem, but parameters are not good), or with the barbs (2 of my 8 have problems developing color after too long a stay in the store...they may be messed up for life.).
hth
TammyLiz
Fish Herder
Hey there, been away from the forum for a few days, but I bought some odessa barbs about a week ago, too. I bought 8 and ended up with 3 males and 4 females and a checkered barb! I guess when they are all washed out from being netted they look the same 
.
Quote:
My barbs have taken really well to the tank but are so fast and skittish that i thought there was something wrong. Turns out thats just the way they are.
Mine don't school at all and have fun just swimming randomly around the tank, picking at this and that on the plants and gravel. They're not skittish at all as you say yours are. I also have gouramis in my tank, and they and the barbs mainly ignore each other. They all seem completely comfortable.
. Quote:
My barbs have taken really well to the tank but are so fast and skittish that i thought there was something wrong. Turns out thats just the way they are.
Mine don't school at all and have fun just swimming randomly around the tank, picking at this and that on the plants and gravel. They're not skittish at all as you say yours are. I also have gouramis in my tank, and they and the barbs mainly ignore each other. They all seem completely comfortable.
I think you are saying that they all show their color -- if yes, this is nice.
If I may ask: do any of your 7 have red fins? If yes, which fin, and how large is the fish?
(I'm trying to solve a little mystery here: One of my 8 is also something else ... either a mutant Odessa, or something else altogether...)
If I may ask: do any of your 7 have red fins? If yes, which fin, and how large is the fish?
(I'm trying to solve a little mystery here: One of my 8 is also something else ... either a mutant Odessa, or something else altogether...)
I have also heard this, but Odessa is in Ukraine, and although it has a reasonably mild climate, can no way be considered tropical, yet the fish are plainly so, in cooler water there activity drops markedly and at temperate levels, they just hang listlessly.
I believe them to be a sport of Barbus ticto, an Indian fish. I don't know whether they are a natural or man made sport however.
The Barbus/Puntius saga is a real farce. The original motivation was the large size of the Barbus genus. It was said to be to large to manage, so a rather arbitary decision was made to split Barbus into Barbodes, Capoeta and Puntius based on whether they had 0, 1 or 2 pairs of barbels.
The re-classification began, and many fish were formally reclassified. It then transpired that fish that were actually very closely related, were being assigned to different genera, and some more reclassification was done. It then transpired that some species said to have just one pair of barbels, when microscopically examined, had in fact, two, so more work was redone.
In the end, the work stopped altogether and now we have a total mess with some authorities not recognising the new genera at all, others swearing by them, many species not dealt with yet, some that were done, that have been undone, and most people just dazed and confused.
The bottom line is if you need info on a barb, it it well worth searching for Barbus xxx, AND Puntius xxx AND Capoeta xxx AND Barbodes xxx although Capoeta and Barbodes are not used as much.
I tend to call them Barbus.
I think that Ukranian Odessa is totally out, it is not even a sub-tropical climate, and to the best of my recollections there are no barbs of any kind anywhere close to it (well, except in tanks).
On the Odessa-Ticto connection: there are some mysteries here. The Ticto descriptions I've seen refer to a larger barb, 4in on fishbase (and I've seen a larger size somewhere). Other sites seem to think that Ticto is the same as Odessa.
The worst mystery is the water temp: according to fishbase, Ticto is subtropical; 14 - 22°C.
Now if Odessa is nearly the same as Ticto, keeping them in a tropical tank is not nice.
(they do seem to do fine in a tropical tank, but who knows longterm?)
But if Odessa is a similar smaller species, or a hybrid, tropical temp are just fine.
It would be really nice to understand this one day...
On the Odessa-Ticto connection: there are some mysteries here. The Ticto descriptions I've seen refer to a larger barb, 4in on fishbase (and I've seen a larger size somewhere). Other sites seem to think that Ticto is the same as Odessa.
The worst mystery is the water temp: according to fishbase, Ticto is subtropical; 14 - 22°C.
Now if Odessa is nearly the same as Ticto, keeping them in a tropical tank is not nice.
(they do seem to do fine in a tropical tank, but who knows longterm?)
But if Odessa is a similar smaller species, or a hybrid, tropical temp are just fine.
It would be really nice to understand this one day...
TammyLiz
Fish Herder
hmmm...I did notice that some of them have red fins and some do not, seemingly regardless of their sex. I remembered that you had some and even thought of asking you if yours had red or clear fins. You got to it first. I will have to do a check and see if I can either get some pictures of them or try to describe each one. I'll post later and let you know. Pictures may be hard to get because my camara isn't the best at capturing fish without either blurring everything or washing out colors.
TammyLiz
Fish Herder
Well, maybe it does have something to do with which sex they are. I took a good look at them and see that the females all have a rosy tint to their fins. Some more than others. Two of the three males are similar and what I would consider "normal". They have a red eye (which the females all lack) and red that runs all the way along the lateral line and through the tail. The fins are clear with bold black specks. One of these has a little red at the tips of the pelvic fins. The third male has a red eye, and a narrow, washed out line of red along the lateral line through the tail. All the fins except the pecs are red, with the pelvic fins being reddest, the anal fins slightly less red, and the dorsal fin only slightly red. The black specks are present but not as bold. They are all around an inch to 1 1/4 inches long except one of the females, which is smaller.
I have pictures here but they are terrible and show nothing of the fishes actual beauty. The red does not show well in the pictures and they look so much bolder in real life. Neither do they show the black highlights that are at the edges of each scale when they are in a particularly great mood. They are stunning.
one of the females
male #1
male #2
male #3
male #3 with a female
the checkered barb
I have pictures here but they are terrible and show nothing of the fishes actual beauty. The red does not show well in the pictures and they look so much bolder in real life. Neither do they show the black highlights that are at the edges of each scale when they are in a particularly great mood. They are stunning.
one of the females
male #1
male #2
male #3
male #3 with a female
the checkered barb
Tammy,
Thank you very very much for posting these.
I understand what you mean by I have pictures here but they are terrible and show nothing of the fishes actual beauty. --- this is why I've not been posting my images, they are worse than yours. (I'll try again).
I'm not so sure that you are right about the sexing. In your "male #3 with a female" picture, I would classify both as females, with the one on the lelt not showing full color yet. Same with the "Male #3" picture, but it is the same fish.... My understanding is that red stripe that is not bright indicates a female.
If someone with lots of barb experience looks at your images perhaps he/she could sex them based on the body shape....
In my case, all 8 barbs have red eyes....hopefully this has nothing to do with sexing....
6 that are larger (around 2" -- I assume 3 males and 3 females) do not have anything reddish on any of the fins.
The smaller two are around 1.25":
One certain Odessa, but with very little color (messed up by staying too long at the store?) has reddish anal fins.
The last one (which may not be Odessa at all) has the same reddish color on the dorsal.
It seems we really lack the basic information here....let me volunteer a guess that red on the fins may dissappear as the grow larger.
One final thing: all of my larger 6 have the "checkers" pattern on the dorsal...like your male #1 and #2. I think that the absence of the pattern means that the colors did not come through totally. Cf. this picture from liveaquaria:
Thank you very very much for posting these.
I understand what you mean by I have pictures here but they are terrible and show nothing of the fishes actual beauty. --- this is why I've not been posting my images, they are worse than yours. (I'll try again).
I'm not so sure that you are right about the sexing. In your "male #3 with a female" picture, I would classify both as females, with the one on the lelt not showing full color yet. Same with the "Male #3" picture, but it is the same fish.... My understanding is that red stripe that is not bright indicates a female.
If someone with lots of barb experience looks at your images perhaps he/she could sex them based on the body shape....
In my case, all 8 barbs have red eyes....hopefully this has nothing to do with sexing....
6 that are larger (around 2" -- I assume 3 males and 3 females) do not have anything reddish on any of the fins.
The smaller two are around 1.25":
One certain Odessa, but with very little color (messed up by staying too long at the store?) has reddish anal fins.
The last one (which may not be Odessa at all) has the same reddish color on the dorsal.
It seems we really lack the basic information here....let me volunteer a guess that red on the fins may dissappear as the grow larger.
One final thing: all of my larger 6 have the "checkers" pattern on the dorsal...like your male #1 and #2. I think that the absence of the pattern means that the colors did not come through totally. Cf. this picture from liveaquaria:
TammyLiz
Fish Herder
Mike--
I only have a second but I just want to reiterate how these pictures do not convey the actual colors of my fish. In particular, as with your fish, all of mine have the black pattern on the dorsal fin and most have it also on the anal fin. The pattern is very light on the females, though. The females do have a very light red thinly running along the lateral line and the two black spots are in bold contrast with their bronzy silver bodies. I am sitting here looking at my fish and then looking at the pictures and they do not look the same. It is weird. Anyways, the one that you were questioning the sex on, you may be right, but it is acting like a male and those of mine that are almost certainly females do not have red eyes so I assumed the eye color was an indicator as well. The main difference in that fish is that the anal and pelvic fins are quite a bold red (also looking washed out in the pictures). I had a hard time getting pictures without a complete glare from the flash in all the glittery scales. Its like the glare off of the tank glass, only its on the scales, so I had to choose pictures that did not reflect the flash. I think maybe the best way to photograph them would be to get some lights or reflectors to shine on the fish from an angle to the side so that the scales are partially illuminated but not glaring to the point of masking everything. Just speculation, though. I am pretty new to this aquarium photography thing. It is a little frustrating.
Barry P.--do any of your odessa barbs have red fins? Do they seem to be settling in well and developing their color? I hope you don't mind us talking about color variations in your thread!
I only have a second but I just want to reiterate how these pictures do not convey the actual colors of my fish. In particular, as with your fish, all of mine have the black pattern on the dorsal fin and most have it also on the anal fin. The pattern is very light on the females, though. The females do have a very light red thinly running along the lateral line and the two black spots are in bold contrast with their bronzy silver bodies. I am sitting here looking at my fish and then looking at the pictures and they do not look the same. It is weird. Anyways, the one that you were questioning the sex on, you may be right, but it is acting like a male and those of mine that are almost certainly females do not have red eyes so I assumed the eye color was an indicator as well. The main difference in that fish is that the anal and pelvic fins are quite a bold red (also looking washed out in the pictures). I had a hard time getting pictures without a complete glare from the flash in all the glittery scales. Its like the glare off of the tank glass, only its on the scales, so I had to choose pictures that did not reflect the flash. I think maybe the best way to photograph them would be to get some lights or reflectors to shine on the fish from an angle to the side so that the scales are partially illuminated but not glaring to the point of masking everything. Just speculation, though. I am pretty new to this aquarium photography thing. It is a little frustrating.
Barry P.--do any of your odessa barbs have red fins? Do they seem to be settling in well and developing their color? I hope you don't mind us talking about color variations in your thread!
Tammy,
I only have a second but I just want to reiterate how these pictures do not convey the actual colors of my fish. --- i understand. What is awful is that this pictures actually do look like some Odessa's...so it is impossible to guess how the real fish looks like.
The pattern is very light on the females, though -- I think you are correct, I've noticed this too on mine. Well, on a 2" fish it is not very light, but surely lighter.
I am sitting here looking at my fish and then looking at the pictures and they do not look the same.--yeap, it may be the worst fish to photograph.
Anyways, the one that you were questioning the sex on, you may be right, but it is acting like a male -- no, then it is probably a male. My "assumed" females do very little chasing and it became the more reliable way for me to know who is who (after I've made some changes to the tank, like adding a little more light, the females became more bright too....makes the school look nicer, but hard to distinguish them).
those of mine that are almost certainly females do not have red eyes so I assumed the eye color was an indicator as well --- my feeling is that there is no eye color at all, red eyes simply give the color of the stripe "underneath", and your females don't have enough of that stripe to show through...If I'm right, they may become red-eyed when grow.
glare -- this is what killed all my pics. I'll try again when I have a couple of hours for this. Getting wrong colors is probably correctable in Photoshop (color adjustment), but glare I could not deal with.
I am pretty new to this aquarium photography thing. It is a little frustrating. -- same here, and this is certainly the worst fish for photography I have...(still very glad I have them...glad that it seems you like yours too)
I only have a second but I just want to reiterate how these pictures do not convey the actual colors of my fish. --- i understand. What is awful is that this pictures actually do look like some Odessa's...so it is impossible to guess how the real fish looks like.
The pattern is very light on the females, though -- I think you are correct, I've noticed this too on mine. Well, on a 2" fish it is not very light, but surely lighter.
I am sitting here looking at my fish and then looking at the pictures and they do not look the same.--yeap, it may be the worst fish to photograph.
Anyways, the one that you were questioning the sex on, you may be right, but it is acting like a male -- no, then it is probably a male. My "assumed" females do very little chasing and it became the more reliable way for me to know who is who (after I've made some changes to the tank, like adding a little more light, the females became more bright too....makes the school look nicer, but hard to distinguish them).
those of mine that are almost certainly females do not have red eyes so I assumed the eye color was an indicator as well --- my feeling is that there is no eye color at all, red eyes simply give the color of the stripe "underneath", and your females don't have enough of that stripe to show through...If I'm right, they may become red-eyed when grow.
glare -- this is what killed all my pics. I'll try again when I have a couple of hours for this. Getting wrong colors is probably correctable in Photoshop (color adjustment), but glare I could not deal with.
I am pretty new to this aquarium photography thing. It is a little frustrating. -- same here, and this is certainly the worst fish for photography I have...(still very glad I have them...glad that it seems you like yours too)
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