[ctenapoma]

I am plaNning on setting up an Odessa breeding tank with
marble bLls for substrate and java moss for fry. I'm planning on putting 2 males with one female and conditioning them with live foods. I'm just looking for any tips or suggestions to aid my endevor.

[Madison]

We've had ours spawn occasionally in a community setup, but since they live in a tank with loaches, none of the fry survived. We haven't tried specifically spawning them, but just anecdotally, I would maybe try a ratio of one male to one female rather than two males to a female. The males can be very determined in their pursuit of females, and they can get aggressive; our male chased a female to death. You probably want to make sure you have some plants for her to hide in in the breeding tank. Our females really liked to hang out in guppy grass when we had it in the tank, but I'm sure anything with decent coverage would work. With other barbs we've bred, you usually want to separate the males and females as you condition them, but I'm not sure about odessas. The males have really intense spawning coloration - ours developed a lot of yellow and blue in addition to the red and black they usually have. Hope that helps, and good luck! :)

[non_compliance]

I have seen youtube videos of spawning barbs... the breeder used a spawning mop (those yarn things) and some egg crate in the bottom of the tank... raised like 1/2" off the bottom... the eggs would fall down through the egg crate... the adults could be removed, and voila...

[ctenapoma]

I read in a book to try 2 males per female for the puntius ticto which is the scientific name/ancestor to the Odessa. I thought that seemed odd. I'm sure they spawn in their current tank but there is a lepord ctenopoma in there so no survival for any babys in that tank.