Swimmers of Rohan

The riders of Rohan are always in groups. While not named for them, Rohan's Teardrop Barbs also like to be in groups. However, since this species wasn't identified (and thus named) until around 2010, it's impossible that Tolkien took any inspiration from these delightful fish (or at least their name). No, instead these fish were named for two important biologists, Tilak Rohan David Pethiyagoda and Clinton Richard Dawkins; their binomial is Dawkinsia rohani. They really have only one common name, though sometimes the Teardrop part is dropped.

Rohan's Barbs come from the hill streams of the southernmost district in India. In part because of this very limited range, they were listed as vulnerable immediately after being categorized. Nearly all the Dawkinsia rohani you find now are aquacultured. The wild ones still thrive in their highly oxygenated, clean and fast-moving waters. They are gorgeously colored as adults and get even a little extra panache when they come into spawning shape. With a distinctive red crescent on their tail with the most unique golden scales, rimmed in electric blue. They are favorites around here, as they offer it all, activity, rarity and just plain stunning coloration, they're also fairly hardy and easy to breed when given appropriate conditions.

The first of those conditions is how you keep them, and they need to be in groups, the more the merrier, but a bare minimum of seven and you really should keep more than that. A good situation would be having at least a dozen of these Barbs, and potentially other Barbs or dither fish as well. Having less than seven (or so) risks them becoming territorial with each other. RTBs are small, with a maximum length between three and three and a half inches. This means your dozen fish will need to be in a tank that's at least 40 gallons. This tank could be decorated however you want, but we suggest a river / hillstream type display featuring smooth rocks and driftwood with rounded gravel or sandy substrate. Flow and oxygenation should both be quite high.

Few plants will love this kind of display, and that's okay, because like most barbs, Rohan's are omnivores and grazers as such will pick at greenery that is soft like most algae and will eat / kill many delicate plants. You may be able to get away with Anubias or similar. If you aren't picky about keeping fish only from similar regions together, then RTBs are compatible with a wide range of community fish, as long as they are large enough not to be considered food and can keep up with the Barb's fast-lane lifestyle. We love these fish in a Hillstream display featuring some really interesting rockwork, ripping flow with a few gorgeous Loaches, and some Danios to round it out.

The other thing that Rohan's Barbs are picky about is water quality. You really need to keep your nitrates under control and your oxygenation high. Strong filtration is recommended as well as regular and large water changes. Supplemental oxygenation is never a bad idea. Hardness can be moderate to hard, pH should be neutral to slightly acidic and the temperature could be anywhere from the upper 60s to 80 or so. It's easier to keep really high oxygenation is cooler tanks, so we'd opt for the mid to lower 70s of this if possible for your setup and the other fish in the display.

The one time that you might think about higher temperature is if you want to breed the fish, it seems they spawn more frequently in higher temperatures (which maybe corresponds to their monsoon). In a well maintained display with plenty of cover, you might just see baby RTBs start to show up. If you want some better success than that, you'll need to make more concerted effort to keeping the eggs away from predators. Eggs hatch quickly, within a day or two, and are usually free swimming within a day of that. The fry are very small and will need some microscopic food to get them large enough to start eating Artemia, Microworms and the like.

Sooner or later, it seems like most aquarists have a display that features some Barbs in one capacity or another, but very few people have the Riders of Rohan in their tank, or even Rohan Teardrop Barbs (much more appropriate anyway). Really, these fish are everything you like about Barbs, tailor made for robust community displays, especially of the Hillstream variety. They're rarer than most, absolutely gorgeous, as well as easy to keep and breed! Ask your LFS about getting you some from Aquatropic today!