Silver barb
Barbonymus gonionotus
Also known asJava barb · Tawes
Water parameters
Minimum tank: 800 L per individual at harvest size.
Feed and growth
- Feed protein
- 25% target
- Daily feed (warm)
- 3.00% of body weight
- Daily feed (cool)
- 1.00% of body weight
- Max density
- 40 g per litre
A 1500 g adult eats about 45.0 g of feed per day at optimum. 10 fish at adult size: ~450 g daily.
Origin and habitat
Native to mainland and island Southeast Asia, through the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins and across the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java. A mid-sized cyprinid once placed in Puntius, it typically reaches 30–40 cm and 0.5–1.5 kg on the farm, with a maximum of 43 cm and a rare rod-caught record near 90 cm and 13 kg from Malaysia. Silver barb is among the most important farmed freshwater fish in Southeast Asia, one of Thailand's top aquaculture species, and was taken up in Bangladesh after its introduction there in 1977. It is mainly herbivorous, grazing leaves, weeds and plants such as Ipomoea and Hydrilla, but it will also take invertebrates. Hardy, fast-growing and easy to breed, it fits low-input pond, rice-field and ditch culture. The flesh is white and bony, as in most cyprinids, and is eaten widely across the region steamed, fried, grilled or in soups.
Climate and outdoor ponds
- Climate
- tropical (needs warm water year-round)
- USDA zones
- 10–13 (winter low around -1°C or warmer)
- Heating needed
- yes
- Cooling needed
- no
Care notes
A warm-water food fish at home in Southeast Asian integrated farming. It is strongly tropical, growing best in the high 20s to low 30s Celsius, with fry studies pointing to an optimum near 31 to 33 C, and needing heated water outside the tropics. Growth is quick, roughly 300–600 g in 6 to 10 months on carp or barb pellet of 25 to 32 percent protein, with feed conversion near 1.5 to 2.0. Because it grazes plants so readily, duckweed, vegetable trimmings, rice bran and kitchen scraps can offset much of the pellet ration, which is part of why it suits low-cost integrated systems; adding it to carp polyculture has been shown to lift total pond output by around a quarter. Stock about {density:15}-{density:30}. Water-quality tolerance is forgiving, with low-oxygen endurance, a broad pH band and resilience to the swings common in outdoor tropical systems. Breeding is done by hormone induction in hatcheries, mostly April to July, and broodstock spawn repeatedly over a couple of seasons, so cheap fingerlings are available year round across Southeast Asia. The species is legal throughout the region; its main drawback elsewhere is that Western retail markets do not recognise it, so it suits operators serving Asian communities or working in the tropics.