Like many fishes that naturally inhabit running waters it’s intolerant to the accumulation of organic wastes and requires spotless water at all times in order to thrive. It also does best if there is a high proportion of dissolved oxygen and moderate degree of water movement so external filters, powerheads, airstones, etc., should be employed as necessary.

This fish has been widely misidentified and sold as the congener P. tiantian and its vernacular name of ‘Burmese bumble-bee barb’ but actually appears to be an undescribed member of the genus Pethia.

This assemblage was erected by Pethiy…

Probably a micropredator feeding on small insects, worms, crustaceans and other zooplankton in nature. In the aquarium it should accept dried foods of a suitable size but should not be fed these exclusively.

Daily meals of small live and frozen fare such as Daphnia, Artemia, Moina, etc., along with good quality flakes and granules will result in the best colouration and encourage the fish to come into breeding condition.

This species is traded for aquaria under various names including ‘butterfly barb’, ‘mackerel barb’, ‘green-barred danio’, and ‘royal opsarius’.

It can be told apart from other memb…

Type locality is ‘Mé-Nam River, Thailand’, with ‘Mé-Nam’ having been considered an older name for the Chao Phraya river in central and western Thailand prior to this species’ redescription by Tejavej (2012).

In fact ‘menam’ is the Thai word for ‘river’ and thus could refer to any drainage, and B. ornatus is restricted to…

Inhabits well-oxygenated, low-to-medium gradient, slow to moderate-flowing rivers and streams with substrates of gravel, cobbles, larger boulders and exposed bedrock. At the habitat in our image pH was 7.5, temperature 26°C and cond…

This species is traded very occasionally, sometimes under the alternative vernacular names of ‘river baril, ‘river carp-baril’, or ‘striated hill trout’.

It can be told apart from congeners by the following combination of characters: 1 pair of minute rostra…

Described from ‘Etok stream near Chanderkhong, southern watershed of the Naga Hills, Manipur, Assam’, located within the Chindwin River basin in northern India.

The Chindwin is the major tributary of the Ayeyarwady/Irrawaddy River and most of it flows within Myanmar although two of its own tributaries, the Manipur and Yu rivers, originate in the Indian states of Manipur and Nagaland.

This species may have appeared in the aquarium trade though probably not under the correct name.

It can be told apart from similar-looking congeners by the following combination of characters: presence of a black round spot at the caudal base; dorsal-fin rays black with connecting membranes transparent; posterior dorsal-fin origin located midway between upper angle of gill aperture and caudal-fin base, or slightly closer to the latter.

Type locality is ‘Canara, southern India’, which corresponds to a coastal region of approximately 300 km in length covering several districts of Karnataka and Kerala states, southwestern India.

Rivers in this area drain the Western Gha…