This species is also referred to as ‘black-anded leporinus’, ‘striped leporinus’ and ‘eight-banded leporinus’.

Young specimens are often traded for aquaria without warning as to their potential size and requirements, and as a result it’s fairly ubiquitous in public aquarium displays.

This species is widely-distributed in the Río Orinoco system in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela plus coastal drainages in Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana including the Essequibo and Mazaruni.

Type locality is ‘Palital, Estado Guárico, Venezuela’ which appears to correspond to a wetland called Esteros de Palital in the Aguaro-Guariquito National Park of Guárico state, northern Venezuela.

A biotope-style set-up could consist of a sandy substrate, piles of smooth rocks and driftwood roots and branches, some of which should penetrate the water surface.

Aquatic vegetation can be included if you wish but is likely to be eaten.

Abramites spp. are separated from other anostomids primarily on the basis of their relatively deeper bodies and presence of a prominent, post-pelvic median keel, a feature unique to the genus.

At time of writing A. eques is the only other species recognised and is native to the Río Magdalena drainage in western Colombia.

It can be distinguished by possession of 13-14 bra…

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.

This species is rare in the hobby although other species are sometimes sold under the name. It’s a member of the nominal G. surinamensis ‘group’ of closely-related species within the genus and can be identified by a combination of characters including: possession of dark preopercular marking; four parallel, ventrally-inclined bars on each flank (normally visible only when the fish are stressed, spawning or preserved); dark lateral spot positioned within the second vertical bar; caudal fin red with variable pattern of large, iridescent blue to white spo…

This species can look quite stunning when cared for properly. It can sometimes be a little delicate when initially imported, as it has very large scales which tend to fall off during transport. Once acclimatised, it usually proves fairly hardy. There are reports of aquarium specimens surviving for over fifteen years in well-maintained conditions….

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 sometimes referred to as ‘Sierra Leone dwarf characin’ and is the only member of its genus which can be distinguished from other alestids by lacking dorsal scales anterior to the adipose-fin insertion.

The family Alestidae is the most spe…