Aggressively territorial and incompatible with other fishes in all but the largest public installations and even then may attack its tankmates.

It’s also one of few freshwater fishes that appear unafraid of humans meaning care must be exercised when performing maintenance.

Confusion with similar-looking fishes from other genera, such as Garra cambodgiensis, laterally-striped Crossocheilus spp. or Gyrinocheilus aymonieri is not uncommon, and are largely attributable to the use of trade names such as ‘false flying fox’ or ‘Siamese flying fox’. When compared with the other species E. kalopterus exhibits several unique characters but perhaps the simplest way to identify it is by the characteristic white-edged, red and black coloured fins and the presence of two pairs of barbels.

This species is uncommon in the aquarium hobby, although the scientific name is widely misapplied to Barbodes dunckeri, a similar-looking species native to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore commonly referred to as ‘clown barb’ and labelled as B. everetti in the majority of available literature. The two are quite easy to tell apart, with B. everetti an overall less…

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 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.

D. polota is sometimes referred to as D. quadrifasciatus (Sevastianov, 1809) but the original name of the latter, Chaetodon quadrifasciatus Sevastianov, 1809, is a junior primary homonym of the older Chaetodon quadrifasciatus Bloch & Schneider 1801, thus Coius polota Hamilton, 1822 takes precedence.

Generally considered to have an enormous natural range extending from Iran to Taiwan and Bali, with records existing from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

However there exists significant evidence to suggest that C. gachua as currently understood represents a complex of similar-looking species, and a taxonomic review of the group is clearly required.

C. micropeltes is also referred to as ‘Indonesian’, ‘red’, or ‘redline’ snakehead, the latter names in reference to the appearance of juveniles which often appear in the ornamental trade despite its unsuitability for home aquaria. It is somewhat hyperbolised in the media as a fearsome, invasive “monster” fish with a reputation for killing more fish than it can eat, and even the occasional human, although in reality…

In aquarium literature this species is also referred to as ‘fine scaled tiger fish’, ‘Indonesian tiger fish’, ‘Sumatran tiger fish’, ‘Indo datnoid’, and ‘Indo dat’. The common name of ‘tiger fish’ is also used in reference to the African alestid genus Hydrocynus, and the more appropriate ‘tiger perch’ was suggested by Roberts and Kottelat (1994).

This species lends its name to the Betta foerschi group of closely-related species within the genus, of which members share the following set of characters: possession of iridescent blue or green unpaired fins; rays and interradial membranes in unpaired fins not contrasting; dorsal fin with thin, bright white distal band; opercle with two, reddish-yellow, vertical bars.

Members are regarded as being closely-related to bubble nesting Betta specie…