This species appears endemic to the upper rio Madeira basin in Bolivia and Brazil.

Records exist from the Río Mamoré and Río Guaporé drainages in Bolivia (where the Guaporé is known as the Iténez) and Brazil plus the upper Río Orthon (ríos Tahuamanu and Manuripi).

Type locality is ‘sand-bank in the Rio Marm…

Another popular molly in the hobby, and another that has been selectively bred to produce several different varieties, such as albino, black, red etc. Some of these are the result of cross breeding with P.latipinna. There also exists a (in our opinion) grotesque 'balloon' variety of this fish in which the body is malformed and rounded, giving a balloon-like appearance. This condition can cause swimbladder and digestive problems and may bring about premature death.

It is difficult to…

Another massively popular aquarium fish, with dozens of selectively bred varieties available, including mickey mouse, wagtail, tuxedo, moon, blue, red, comet and hi-fin. Some of these are produced by crossbreeding with X.helleri or X. variatus. Unfortunately many commercially bred platies are not very hardy due to inbreeding and over-production and are prone to disease and premature death.

Wild fish are almost never seen in the hobby.

As long as the ph remains above neutral this fish is …

Wild swordtails are a fairly basic green colur. However the vast majority of swordtails available in the hobby today are hybrids of X.helleri with X.maculatus or X.variatus. There are a huge number of selectively-bred varieties available, including wagtail, lyretail, tuxedo, albino, neon, red, green and hi-fin.

Swordtails may undergo what appears to be a change in sex. In young fish this may simply be late development. However some adult females develop male characteristics which is thought …

A hugely popular aquarium fish. Many aquarium-bred colour morphs of this species are available, including the ubiquitous black molly. There are also Gold, Green, Lyretail, Silver and Dalmation varieties. Some of these are the results of P. sphenops being crossed with P. latipinnis. The 2 species will also interbreed readily in the aquarium and in order to avoid this we suggest keeping only one of them per tank. There also exists a (in our opinion) grotesque 'balloon' variety of this fi…

This species is very rare in the trade and is normally imported only as bycatch among shipments of other fishes.

It can be told apart from its well-known congener B. dorsiocellata by a combination of characters as follows: lateral line complete (25-30 pored scales vs. 4-9); more scales in the lateral row (29-32 vs. 25-27); larger adult siz…

P. tetrazona is traditionally considered to be among the most ubiquitous species available in the aquarium trade. Wild examples are rarely traded, however, and there exists ongoing confusion as to the identity of the commercially-produced ‘aquarium’ tiger barb.

A number of selectively-bred, ornamental strains are available. The albino, ‘green’ (aka ‘moss’), and ‘golden’ (leucistic) variants are particularly pop…

This species was originally classified in the genus Limia before this was made a sub-genus of Poecilia. Confusingly they have been reclassified once more into Limia, but are still referred to as members of Poecilia in much of the available literature.

L. melanogaster is endemic to Jamaica. It is not often seen for sale in the hobby….

For many years this species was imported and sold as Barbus/Barbodes barilioides, now recognised as a junior synonym of ‘B.‘ fasciolatus, and is sometimes called the Blue Banded or Angola Barb.

It’s an exceptionally attractive little fish when in good condition but like all African barbs is quite rare in the hobby due to sporadic exports from the countries in which it is found. Distinguishing features include 25-30 late…

The fish appearing in the majority of earlier literature as P. arulius or ‘arulius barb’, and often still traded as such, is the related D. tambraparniei. Though similar the latter can be told apart from D. arulius by possession of filamentous extensions to the dorsal-fin rays in males, longer maxillary barbels measuring > ½ eye diameter, i.e., 2.4 – 4.7 % SL, and some aspects of colour pattern.