Red Line Torpedo Barbs....?

[Cactusface]

Hi All,
           Last week I took a visit to my LFS and they had some baby? Red line Torpedo barbs. Yesterday I went back and got 4 for £15, there about 1-1.5" in size with the vertical lines fading, the horizontal black line is there and an hint of red in the dorsal. As there so small I removed the rams and pearl Goramies, but was suprised then the Swordtails had a go at them, but they all seems to have settled in now and are taking fine flake....  
 
2 of them swim around together quite happy the other 2 well one keeps taking a nip? at the other.
 
Anyone else any experiance of young RLTB (Well that's what I'm going to call them) or advice. etc.   If I can I'll upload a picture.
 
Regards
Mel.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

"RLTB"s should be kept in a tank with plenty of length (at least 120cm) and no heater, so the temp changes through the seasons from a tropical ~25C in summer to cool ~15C in winter. Keeping them permanently in tropical temps will knock chunks off their potential lifespan of 8 years. The tank should have a decent current (at least 8x real water turnover, so 2000+lph in a 250l tank), with plenty of surface rippling to provide plenty of oxygen.
 
The aggression and anti-social behaviour is very typical, I saw exactly the same when I started with 3 in 2010, a week later I bought another 3 and the group was very social. But at that price, if you have a suitable setup, you ought to get at least another 4 if not 8!
 
I sold my original group that had grown to ~11cm SL last summer and regretted soon after, but I know they joined a 30+ group, which was great for them. Someone local to me was desperate to move on freshwater fish so he could return to marine and I bought 5 for an amazing price. However, this has not been the return to keeping them I hoped, as 3 died in quarantine.
 
I stupidly forgot some top advice from 3 years ago when I bought the recent group, always give RLTBs a long acclimitisation when moving them from tank to tank, as in ~3 hours if drip acclimitising (which I did every time I moved my original group). They are extremely sensitive to water chemistry changes, just like halfbeaks, my best guess is I lost 3 of the new ones because I gave them far less acclimitising.
 
So right now I have 2 RLTBs with 7 Ilyodon xantusi teenagers and 2 Empire Gudgeon, all temporarily living in an heaterless 80l plastic tub QT with a Fluval U4 for filtration. Now the deaths have stopped, I shall be looking to move the fish to either one of my 4-foot tank or re-opening my garage 5x2x2 after the chilly winter shutdown. I will then look into finding some more if they are not silly prices (4 for £15 would be great, if they are healthy), or rehoming them.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My experience was the exact opposite. I find them to be fairly hardy and I have done almost no acclimation with the three groups I have acquired over the years. I am down to my last one from my first batch purchased in late 2004. My second trio I put in with the big clowns and after about 3 weeks all 3 vanished. I presume they ended up inside the clowns. I have also moved them between tanks without doing any acclimation at all.
 
The last trio has been growing out in a planted community so they will get bigger and hopefully the clowns will not mess with them when they finally go in.
 
While I am aware they prefer to be in cooler water, I have always kept mine in water that is 2-8 degrees above the suggested maximum temperature. They seemed to do OK in it.
 
One word or warning- these guys are champion jumpers, be very careful putting them into buckets etc.

  But the most interesting fish was one that I had not seen before, "Denison's flying fox" or the "red line torpedo fish" (Puntius denisonii, formerly Barbus denisonii Day 1865, and Madan also referred to it as Crossocheilus denisonii - there is still lots of confusion over Indian fish names!). This fish resembles the Siamese algae eater in shape but is far more colourful, with beautiful red and yellow stripes on its body and fins. It is in fact a barb, and is omnivorous.  It likes to swim in groups and is peaceful and non-territorial, and grows to about 16cm.  It is a jumper and should be in a covered tank. One of my Indian friends once had one jump five feet straight up out of a bucket - he caught it at eye level!  Later I took the trouble to seek out the wholesaler, in Madras, and was told that it is only available seasonally, being caught in the wild from fast flowing hill streams in South India. (It thus requires a well oxygenated tank and will accept cooler temperatures).

from http/www.aquarticles.com/articles/people/norfolk_madansubramanian.html