Generally considered one of the hardiest small cyprinids available in the aquarium hobby, P. conchonius is an excellent choice for the beginner. Selective breeding has produced various ornamental strains including long-finned, ‘veil-tail’, ‘super red’, ‘neon’, and ‘golden’ forms. It’s also been hybridised with some congeners although the offspring of such experiments are apparently infertile.

It was formerly included in th…

This species has become an extremely popular aquarium fish since it first appeared in the ornamental trade during the late 1990s, and it has been sold under various names including ‘Denison’s barb’, ‘denisoni barb’, ‘Denison’s flying fox’, ‘rose line shark’, ‘bleeding-eye barb’, ‘red flash barb’, and ‘Indian flasher barb’. In India it is known locally as ‘Miss Kerala’ and ‘Chorai Kanni’ ( literally ‘bleeding eyes’).

This species is traded under various vernacular names including ’ember barb’, ‘banded barb’ and ‘black spot barb’, and is perhaps among the more undervalued small cyprinids in the aquarium hobby being peaceful, relatively hardy, colourful, and of interesting behaviour.

It exists in a number of colour for…

This species’ identity was settled and a neotype designated by Knight (2013) who also revalidated the congener P. canius (Hamilton, 1822) and described the closely-related P. aurea.

These three had previously been considered to represent geographic forms of P. gelius, albeit on a tentative basis, with the validity of P. canius having been discussed since the late 19th century.

Generally very peaceful making it an ideal resident of the well-researched community tank. As it places no special demands in terms of water chemistry it can be combined with many of the most popular fish in the hobby including other small cyprinids as well as tetras, livebearers, rainbowfishes, anabantoids, catfishes and loaches.

It’s a schooling species by nature, and at least 6-10 specimens should be purchased. Maintaining it in such…

This species is rare in the aquarium trade with the majority of fish available under the name or the vernacular ‘pentazona barb’ being the closely-related D. hexazona.

The two are almost identical in terms of both appearance and meristics but can be separated by the fact that D. pentazona possesses a small dark marking at the posterior base of the dorsal-fin which is absent in D. hexazona.

One of four similar-looking, laterally-striped ‘Puntius‘ spp. native to Southeastern Asia alongside ‘P.‘ gemellus, ‘P.‘ johorensis, and ‘P.‘ trifasciatus. Of these ‘P.‘ lineatus is most often confused with ‘P.‘ johorensis by virtue of the fact that these two seem most common in the aquarium trade.

Telling them apart is relatively simple since ‘P.‘ lineatus has 0 – 1 pairs of barbels (vs. 2 pairs in the other three species), juv…

This species is commonly-referred to as ‘T-barb’ in some countries. It’s closely-affiliated with and sometimes traded as the congener B. kuchingensis but that species can be told apart by colour pattern comprising a prominent row of dark spots along the lateral line, plus a short, horizontally-orientated streak extending from the upper part of the operculum. In B. lateristriga the lateral markings usually form a solid stripe and there is no streak extending from the operculum.

Apparently most abundant in shallow streams and minor tributaries, sometimes at relatively high altitudes, and apparently shows a preference for substrates of mud or silt. Given the extent of its range it would seem sensible to assume that it inhabits various habitat-types which also vary in water depth, flow, and turbidity depending on the time of year.

This is one of two species traded under the vernacular name ‘tinfoil barb’, the other being the less well-known congener B. altus. Despite this it appears that B. altus is just as widely available as B. schwanefeldii and in many cases is seen on sale more regularly. Unfortunately both are usually offered at a small size (usually around 50 – 75 mm) with little to no information regarding the eventual size of the fish.