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| A school of Red Lined Torpedo Barbs swim in an aquarium. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Barbs are egg scatterers; they prefer to scatter their eggs over plants. Most of them come from soft acidic water. The most suitable temperature for breeding varies with the species. Barbs tend to be ravenous eaters of fish eggs and fry.
A suitable breeding tank set up will need to take these things into account. Generally, the breeding tank should have soft, slightly acidic water. There will need to be some fine-leaved plants like Java Moss for the fish to lay their eggs over. And of course, the parents need to be removed after spawning. This is an overview of the most common set up for breeding barbs, but there are other ways.
If you have enough space, it is possible to get some babies by simply having the parents in a large, very well planted aquarium with no other fish.
Some barbs are spawning regularly in aquariums without their owners being aware of it. There have been occasions when I have moved barbs out of a tank and have baby fish appear a week or so later!
Some commercial barbs are bred in ponds. Naturally, you would need the right climate for this, but my observation is that in ponds, fish can sometimes take lower temperatures than you would expect from experience with these fish in aquariums. Also, remember that it is possible to breed the barbs just over summer and take out the babies before the cold weather comes.
Before you consider actually attempting to breed barbs, you will need to research the requirements for the actual species of barb you are going to try to breed.
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