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…

Type locality is ‘ Kapa, northwestern peninsular Thailand’, which may refer to modern-day Kapoe district, Ranong province, and additional records exist from other localities in Ranong as well as Phang-nga and Pattani provinces.

Although the precise extent of its distribution is unclear it appears to occur in river systems on both sides of the Tennaserim Hills in pen…

Type locality is given as ‘Cedawáti [Vedawati] stream, headwaters of Krishna River near Heriuru, Mysore, India’, with the species currently considered to occur throughout India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and probably Bhutan.

It’s also been recorded in Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka although some or all of these reports may refer to other species.

This species occasionally appears in the ornamental trade, usually as ‘striped hill trout’ or ‘banded hill trout’.

It can be distinguished from congeners by the following combination of characters: lateral line complete with 40-42 scales; barbels absent; 10-13 anal-fin rays; body with 9-11 dark blue vertical bars; last dorsal-fin ray extending to caudal-fin base.

It can be told apart from similar-looking congeners such as P. crescentus and P. muzaffarpurensis by the following combination of characters: barbels absent; lateral line incomplete with up to 5 pored scales; 20-22 lateral line scales; 8 predorsal scales; dorsal-fin with a vertically-orientated black streak and a black tip with orange markings; a dark spot at the base of the caudal peduncle.

This species is almost identical to the wild form of ‘P.‘ semifasciolatus which is best known as the ‘golden barb’ in the aquarium hobby due to the popularity of a yellowish ornamental strain. The natural colour pattern is greenish in both species, however, and in terms of external characters they’re only reliably distinguished by the fact that ‘P.‘ semifasciolatus possesses a pair of prominent maxillary barbels wherea…

This species is almost unheard of in the aquarium hobby outside of India but is maintained by some private collectors. It’s distinguished from similar species by possessing a single pair of maxillary barbels, a relatively elongate body, and distinctive black spot above the anterior anal-fin base.

The genus Puntius was for a number of years viewed as a polyphyletic catc…

A benthopelagic fish mostly recorded from streams and minor tributaries at relatively high altitudes of more than 1200 metres AMSL with cool, clear, well-oxygenated water and substrates of bedrock, boulders, cobbles, and gravel. Aquatic plants aren’t usually present though riparian vegetation may be well-developed. It’s also present in some ponds and small lakes, including some stagnant water bodies with muddy substrates.