Cherry puntius , or cherry barbus [1] ( lat. Puntius titteya ) - a species of ray-finned fish from the family of cyprinids . It lives in fresh water bodies of the south-west of Sri Lanka - in the valleys of the Kelani and Nilvala rivers [2] , where they are confined to shaded shallow water streams and small rivers with a muddy bottom with a significant amount of plant material [2] . Distributed as aquarium fish .
| Cherry puntius |
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Puntius titteya |
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| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
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Puntius titteya Deraniyagala , 1929 |
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- Babus titteya (Deraniyagala, 1929)
- Capoeta titteya (Deraniyagala, 1929)
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Least ConcernedIUCN 3.1 Least Concern : 18900 |
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The usual body length is 2.5 cm, large individuals can reach 5 cm [2] . Males have a reddish abdomen and a brown-green back, which is separated from the sides by a wide brown-red lateral line . The female abdomen is whitish, the back is yellowish-gray, the lateral line is also brownish-red.
Cherry puntiuses reach puberty at the age of 6-8 months. When spawning, the fish swim to the surface of the water, turn their belly up, and the female throws several eggs . The female tosses up to 300 eggs, which are attached to the leaves of plants using thin mucous filaments. Caviar develops within 1 day. After 3-4 days, the fry begin to swim and feed on ciliates .
