Given the right conditions, the Spanner Barb is easy to breed.
Remember that this is a big fish.
You cannot expect a 7 inch fast swimming fish to be comfortable breeding in a 20 inch tank.
Sexing The males are slightly more colourful.
The females tend to be plumper.
These differences become more pronounced when the fish are in breeding condition.
Breeding Before attempting to breed, select a good sized, healthy looking pair.
Separate the male and female, and feed them well with rich foods like Mosquito larva, small worms, frozen blood worms and high quality vegetable foods.
The Spanner Barb is an egg scatterer.
It will eat its own eggs and babies.
I suggest copying the fish's natural water conditions, with neutral or slightly acidic pH, a temperature of about 28 degrees C (82 degrees F) and a hardness of less than 6.
Although this fish will spawn readily, there seems to be one requirement.
Give your fish plenty of room.
For breeding the smallest aquarium I would suggest is three feet (90cm) long.
Method Set up this aquarium so it gets the early morning sun.
Have about 6 inches (15cm) of water in the tank.
Put marbles or a thin layer of very coarse gravel on the bottom.
Put some bunches of fine leaved plants in it.
The fish will usually spawn early on the morning after they are put in the breeding tank.
Raising the Fry Adult Spanner Barbs are very fond of eating fish eggs.
They may even start eating their own eggs before they have finished spawning.
A female Spanner Barb can lay as many as 3000 eggs.
The parents should be removed as soon as possible after spawning.
The eggs should hatch in about 2 days.
At first they will cling to surfaces, but when they are free swimming, they will eat things as big as newly hatched brine shrimp and the finest screened Daphnia.
They also eat infosoria.
These things can be supplemented with commercial fry foods.
Remember that this is a big fish.
You cannot expect a 7 inch fast swimming fish to be comfortable breeding in a 20 inch tank.
Sexing The males are slightly more colourful.
The females tend to be plumper.
These differences become more pronounced when the fish are in breeding condition.
Breeding Before attempting to breed, select a good sized, healthy looking pair.
Separate the male and female, and feed them well with rich foods like Mosquito larva, small worms, frozen blood worms and high quality vegetable foods.
The Spanner Barb is an egg scatterer.
It will eat its own eggs and babies.
I suggest copying the fish's natural water conditions, with neutral or slightly acidic pH, a temperature of about 28 degrees C (82 degrees F) and a hardness of less than 6.
Although this fish will spawn readily, there seems to be one requirement.
Give your fish plenty of room.
For breeding the smallest aquarium I would suggest is three feet (90cm) long.
Method Set up this aquarium so it gets the early morning sun.
Have about 6 inches (15cm) of water in the tank.
Put marbles or a thin layer of very coarse gravel on the bottom.
Put some bunches of fine leaved plants in it.
The fish will usually spawn early on the morning after they are put in the breeding tank.
Raising the Fry Adult Spanner Barbs are very fond of eating fish eggs.
They may even start eating their own eggs before they have finished spawning.
A female Spanner Barb can lay as many as 3000 eggs.
The parents should be removed as soon as possible after spawning.
The eggs should hatch in about 2 days.
At first they will cling to surfaces, but when they are free swimming, they will eat things as big as newly hatched brine shrimp and the finest screened Daphnia.
They also eat infosoria.
These things can be supplemented with commercial fry foods.
Source...