speaking of egg scatterers... what do you think this fish is doing???

[Magnum Man]

I have a harem of Denison barbs in my Hillstream tank, with one fish with strange behavior... my best description, is it seems to be tending eggs... I'm pretty sure this is a female, and she spends a good amount of time each day in this pagoda... she comes out, and interacts normally with the rest of her clan... of coarse, in this densely populated tank, successful breeding wasn't expected, and I haven't ever seen any fry... when they are dancing, the other females exhibit normal behavior, swimming along the bottom... but this one female spends maybe 50% of her time hanging out the window, nose to the bottom... physically she is perfect, maybe she has different parental instincts than the typical egg scatterers... any idea what else she would be doing

 

[Magnum Man]

this is her outside the pagoda

 

[Magnum Man]

not a good picture, but this is a panda garra in with her, and she doesn't seem to mind, so there must not be eggs, just strange behavior

and she's not afraid to leave the panda in there alone...

if there were eggs, maybe panda eggs, and the Denison is just playing midwife???

 

[Magnum Man]

if there were eggs, I'm sure Mr. Gourami would like to snatch them up...

but 2 minutes later the Denison is back in there???

 

[GaryE]

My guess would be fear - she's hiding from something that's spooking her. Now, our million dollar question with these things is what?

 

[Magnum Man]

Nothing has changed in the tank, in the last 6 months, & her social interactions still appear normal???

 

[Colin_T]

What time of day does it happen?
Can we get a video of it?

 

[Magnum Man]

I don't get to watch the tank all day... so I mostly view morning and nights... this seems to happen some mornings, & these pictures all from this morning, in the order I posted them... sorry, I don't do much video...

 

[GaryE]

Nothing has changed in the tank, in the last 6 months, & her social interactions still appear normal???

It's worth keeping an eye on. Fish change over 6 months in terms of maturity, hormones, etc. And hiding in a pagoda doesn't seem normal, or you wouldn't have expressed concern. Then again, maybe she's had a sudden conversion to Buddhism.

She may be perfectly fine, but keep an eye on it.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I would think that there are one of twp potential; reasons for this behavior. One is that the fish is being picked on by stronger barbs and she uses the pagoda as a place to hide. In my experience fish not feeling well or outright sick will withdraw from participating with others.

However, since the fish doe come out and I would guess eats when you feed, it is not in really bad shape. However , she is maybe feeling somewhat out of sorts and thus safe when in the pagoda. If the other are mostly on the botton part of the tank then she may be keeping an eye out for potential problems for the other barb.

Here is what SeriouslyFish says about redline reproduction:

Reproduction​

Large numbers are produced for the aquarium hobby in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, presumably via stimulation with hormones.

A 2011 study of its reproductive biology revealed that the sex ratio in wild fish appears skewed in favour of males and that absolute fecundity, i.e., the total number of eggs per female at a given point in time, is relatively low compared with some relatives such as Systomus sarana or Rasbora daniconius. Such factors, combined with habitat degradation via pollution or alteration, are likely to have an adverse effect on natural recruitment while affecting population dynamics and potentially leading to a reduced number of individuals in a given population.

In terms of private success at least one report of ‘accidental’ reproduction exists, in which a couple of fry were discovered hiding among plants during aquarium maintenance.

A more detailed report was published in the German magazine Aqualog in 2005. In this case a group of 15 adults spawned in soft, acidic water (gH 2-3/pH 5.7), depositing their eggs in a clump of Java moss (Taxiphylum barbieri). Apparently several of the adults exhibited a colour change with the dorsal surface becoming bluish, and the event appeared to be triggered by a gradual lowering of the pH via addition of driftwood.

Chester Zoo Aquarium in England have also reported successful breeding, and their theory is that a large group is needed as spawning is hypothesised to occur en masse.

from https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/sahyadria-denisonii/

Based on the above I think you can rule out spawning.

Brw, UI have kept this species in at least one of my tanks for the pastclos18+ years. I started with the om a too small 45, then in a 75 and currently I have 6 in my cl;own loach tank (a 150 and when that leaked all moved to a 125. Mine are very active and swim all over the tank usually in a group, I have been told by people who visit that mine are some of the largest they have seen. I usually also get comment on how colorful they are.