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Recently, my LFS acquired some Odessa Barbs.

These fishes have puzzled me for some time - I know they're an artificially bred fish, but exactly what did they originate from? Are they a hybrid of some sort or are they an unusual colour form of one of the recognised species?

Just to add to the confusion in his Barb tank, by the way, he's got them in with Tic-Tac-Toe Barbs, and telling them apart as they mill about is an exercise in rapid radar tracking


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

The websites I looked at described them as Puntius sp. They look very similar to P. ticto, so possibly just a color variant? When I think of hybrids, barbs don't immediately come to mind...

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I've read that the Odessa Barb was discovered in Russia, in the 1970's, but never found in the wild. It is eighter a crossbreed or a colour variety of some other Barb.


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As with the Gold Barb and the Leopard Danio, their origin seems to be an enigma -- most of the websites seem to describe them as a variant of Puntius ticto (although a few give them their own scientific name, Puntius odessa); and one website says they originated in Czechoslovakia (like the Leopard Danio).

Under any name, however, the most brightly colored males are absolutely gorgeous fish -- the mixture of fiery red and silver scales, transparent fins with black spots, and the bright blue dot on the gill cover is irresistible. Whoever bred them had a definite eye for aesthetics. They also seem peaceful and tough (like Gold Barbs).