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On sunday, i've received an aquarium for the ornamental fish culture. So a cleaning session was done bit by bit.

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For my selection of fish, odessa barb is my choice for the culture and breeding. The choice was made after considering the difficulty and availableness. So, few days after cleaning up the tank, i continue to go and search my odessa barb at several fish stores.

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The Odessa Barb, Pethia padamya is also known as a colorful and peaceful freshwater fish found in India and Nepal. These barbs usually grow up to 2-3 inches in length and have a silvery golden body with distinctive red black markings on their fins. They are active and social creatures, which make them good choices for community aquariums. Odessa Barbs will be kept in well-planted tanks that should have enough space for swimming, and they are comfortable living with stable pH levels of water and temperatures . A live or frozen diet consisting of high-quality flake foods maintains their brilliant colors and good general health.

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Tank Setup:

Set up a separate breeding tank to provide a controlled environment.
Include fine-leaved plants or spawning mops where the fish can deposit their eggs.

Water Conditions:

Maintain a temperature between 75-82°F (24-28°C).
Keep the water slightly acidic to neutral (pH 6.0-7.0).
Provide clean and well-oxygenated water.

Diet and Conditioning:

Feed the adult Odessa barbs a high-quality diet to ensure they are well-nourished.
Include live or frozen foods like brine shrimp, daphnia, or bloodworms to enhance their color and reproductive health.

Pair Selection:

Choose healthy and mature individuals for breeding.
Maintain a 1:1 ratio of males to females for optimal pairing.

Courtship Behavior:

Watch for signs of courtship behavior, which may include chasing, fin displays, and increased activity.
Males may display vibrant colors and show interest in the females.

Spawning:

When the female is ready to spawn, she will scatter adhesive eggs among the plants or spawning mops.
The male will fertilize the eggs, and the process may be repeated several times.

Egg Removal:
Once spawning is complete, promptly remove the adult fish from the breeding tank to prevent them from consuming the eggs.
Incubation Period:

Eggs usually hatch within 24-48 hours, depending on the water temperature.
Provide gentle aeration to ensure a constant flow of oxygen to the
developing fry.

Fry Care:
Once the fry are free-swimming, feed them with infusoria or powdered fry food.
Gradually introduce finely crushed flakes as they grow.

Tank Maintenance:

Keep the water clean and monitor water parameters to ensure a healthy environment for the fry.

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For the preparation of an aquarium, I have decided to buy several essential equipment. These includes water pump, sponge filter, dried pellets and tube for aeration. Total cost for all this equipment around Rm 30.

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So, the planning for my aquarium is to put a little bit of natural environment. So i decided to find a driftwood around Bukit Maras. This place is really suitable for for driftwood searching as it has many place that would be consider as untouchable by community around it.

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The Odessa barbs that i going to buy needs to be quarantine before transferring into the bigger aquarium. This is to prevent any diseases from spreading and to reduce the stress of the fish from being transfer over the long period of time. So, i have set up a mini aquarium in the house for the transit before transferring into the aquarium in the hatchery.

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The searching for equipment for main aquarium continues, with the idea of inserting some of the aquascape concept, i have go to several fish store to assessing some of the equipment for the aquascape uses.

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I did try to buy some cherry barbs, 6 pieces to test the suitability of the water to see if it's ready to be use. For several days, the fish are doing fine without any abnormal behaviour.

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While waiting for the driftwood to completely submerge, I've preparing my main aquarium to put my fish into it. With help from luthfil and megat, I've manage to make it completely ready for the placement of water and fish.

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After the driftwood is in good condition, i put it inside the aquarium and started to fill the water. I also put a lit bit of small sand with black colour to add a little bit of decorations.

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A group of us decided to go on an adventurous activity where w go to find fish and aquactic plants at the drain around Maras village. Type of plants that were collected are Cabomba plants. These will act as breeding substrate for my fish later on.

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Here's how it looks like when my fish arrived and how i got them on mini aquarium at my house. It's quite difficult to differentiate them because they basically are on same colour and size. So, i have to make them more comfortable so that they would show theirs colours later on.

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Several days after putting them in a mini aquarium, I've decided to leave a pair at home and bring the rest of them which is 6 of them into the aquarium at the hatchery. At first, they become colourless again after i trying to put them in plastic bag for transferring process, but after acclimatization in the aquarium, they were look more comfortable. I'm planning to feed them on dried pellets to see if they interested.

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They were energised everyday i see them. As mentioned before this fish are the active and agile one, so to take a photo of it without of them moving it's quite difficult for me. Overall for past 3 days since transferring them into new place, seems like there's no problem arise for now.

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The fishes in the tank in superb condition, active and always waiting for its owner for feeding time. To be honest it's quite amazing on how much they changed their colours from silver ish to black ish with red line started to appear more darker. These times i would be considering on choosing new males and females for the breeding process.

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The fishes in the aquarium are doing good, they eat miraculously fast eventhough they've been fed twice a day. Their colours getting more vibrant. One thing about the pair for my breeding is that they seems stress after been separate by their groups. Since this fish is a schooling fish, it may be a factor why they become discoloured and eventhough i feed them live feed, things didn't improve at all.

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I started to pay more attention to my breeding pair and it seems like they don't want to breed? Apart from the 1 males and 2 female ratio, possible reasons why they look inactive is that there's no breeding substrate for them and a hiding place for them. So i decide to put some of the java ferns that i bought before and see how it goes for few days.

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There's still no sign of females drop its eggs considering the sizing of its belly still bulging. They been eating quite good and they didn't lose appetite eventhough i speculate them getting stressed. So i do a quick water change about 50% to maintain water quality.

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It's a week already and the colours of my fishes in big aquarium started to get more darker. They might be becoming more comfortable with their environment. I'm considering to picking a new pair for breeding but it would be inconvenient considering that the first pair still didn't get any results from it. So, should i change the breeding places into new tank with bigger size? Maybe the sizes of the aquarium playing also a big factor to breeding these fish. Food were given to them twice, morning and afternoon.

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The water started to get a little bit foggy, time for a water change

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I continue to monitor the behaviour of my fish to see if any peculiar behaviour that might shows their sign of mating. It would be possible for them to lay eggs in this aquarium but, the difficulty to collected the eggs has been consider. Since they also eat their own eggs, it quite difficult for the larvae to survive with total of 8 fish that would aggressively eaten anything that moves. So, for now i would monitor them more frequently.

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The fishes are in good condition, but recently someone has been disturbing my aquarium makes my fish mostly hiding in the back part of aquarium, showing distress behaviour. I try to feed them as usual but it takes longer time for them to come to front space and started to eat like a normal. Also, it's noticeable that their body shows discoloration which shows something happened in the aquarium.

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Their colours started to appearing again, this times more brighter than before. I also detected a berried female and spotted potential male for breeding. So i started to set up again the breeding tank.

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For second breeding, i improvise by using a platform which separate the bottom and basically act as a barrier. This platform is use as to give more chance egg to survive and not be eaten by their parent. For their feeding plan, i use frozen worm and daphnia for morning and afternoon.

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The monitoring continues on breeding pair, so far there's no sign of eggs were layed. Hoping it will in next 3 or 4 days. Other fishes are in good mood and no sign of any kind of distress. Their colour maintain which shows they comfortable already in that aquarium.

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There's a multiple spot of stains in the aquarium. So, wash it is better option as it keep getting spreading.

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The breeding pair still has appetite to eat but it seems like they didn't want to breed. I did quick water change and try to left them one more day.

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I've decided to put my breeding pair with the others because it would seem they still don't want to breed. These factors are listed :
1. The set up tank too small
2. Poor handling
3. Stressed fish
4. Mistook fish gender

For now, the feeding will be increase in terms of quantities  to getting a good look on my fish. Next expected two weeks will be the second trial of breeding.

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For the breeding process, i need to have a good food for them to produce eggs for females and give them good nutrients. So, daphnia culture is set up for the feeding of our fish. Dried pellet is still in their diet but i need to feed them more live feed food for their colouration and their growth.

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I can conclude that the fish still didn't breed and it kind of disappointing because i take care all the aspect and they still didn't breed.

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I put the breeding pair back to the tank and continue to give the food which is live feed

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The fish is in good mood and they eat normally. Even though the fish that i want to breed didn't go as planned, but I'm grateful to learn new challenges and embrace it well