This species is so ubiquitous across its natural range that it’s often referred to simply as ‘common barb’. Basic adult colour pattern consists of a small, dark spot at the base of the dorsal-fin origin and another on the caudal peduncle but overall appearance varies somewhat depending on origin, with the anterior dark spot enlarged ventrally forming a bar or posterior spot extending into the caudal-fin, for example. The spots may also appear darker or lighter in some individuals.

Native to parts of southern Borneo, eastern Sumatra, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula. In Singapore it’s considered highly-endangered and is now restricted to the Central Catchment nature reserve.

Type locality is ‘Tuluk and Gunung Sahilan, Sumatra, Indonesia’ which appears to correspond to localities within the Kampar River drainage of which the former is now known as Teluk Meranti and is o…

The type series was purchased from a market in Jambi province, eastern Sumatra, Indonesia and this species is also known from neighbouring Riau province plus the island province of Bangka. On Sumatra it may be restricted to the Indragiri and Batang Hari river systems.

Inhabits peat swamp forests and associated black water streams in which the water is typically stained brown with humic acids and other chemicals released by decaying organic material. The dissolved mineral content is generally negligible and the pH can be as…

This species is traded as S. sp. ‘rainbow’, S. sp. ‘gold fin’, or S. sp. ‘gold cheek’ and is among the more widely-available members of the genus although its identity was unclear prior to 2013.

The most commonly-traded fish certainly appears to…

This species was referred to as S. sp. ‘orange fin’ or S. sp. ‘ST01’ prior to being offically named and is one of the more commonly-traded members of the genus, though often in batches containing only one gender, a mixture of species, or misidentified under an incorrect name such as S. zebrinus.

It can be told apart from congeners by the following combination of characters: usually 9 soft second dorsal-fin rays; 15 soft pectoral-fin rays; first dorsal-fin in male poin…

It can be distinguished from congeners by the following combination of characters: 61-68 scales in the lateral series; a small, well-defined, sometimes ocellated black spot on the shoulder and another in the centre of the caudal peduncle; body without longitudinal stripes formed by spots on scales; caudal fin uniformly dusky or colourless, lobes without stripes or black margins.

In the aquarium trade this species may also be seen on sale as ‘skinhead barb’. As with others in the genus little has been written regarding its captive care but it makes a peaceful and unusual addition to larger aquaria. The best way of obtaining it may be to keep an eye on shipments of wild fishes from Indochina and the Greater Sunda Islands as it’s rarely imported in large numbers and most often arrives as bycatch.

The identity of this species was unclear for a number of decades prior to its redescription by Ng and Kottelat (2013).

The confusion originated with Brittan (1954) who misidentified specimens of R. tornieri as R. dusonensis and was exacerbated by Alfred (1963) who concluded that the holotype of R. dusonensis was conspecific with R. myersi.

This species was described from ‘Johore River, Segamat, Malaysia’, which corresponds to Segamat District within the the Johor River watershed, Johor state, southern Peninsular Malaysia, but the type specimens were obtained via a Singapore wholesaler so it’s possible that a mistake was made as there exist no other records of the species in Peninsular Malaysia.

It’s also been recorded from the Kapuas drainage…

This species was previously included in the Betta foerschi group of closely-related species within the genus, but following its redescription in 2012 now lends its name to the B. rubra group.

It was first placed into its own species group by Witte and Schmidt (1992), primarily on the basis of a triangular marking that appears below the eyes of the fish, although Tan and Ng (2005) suggested that this feature is insufficient to warrant the fo…