This species has not yet entered the aquarium trade but is maintained by a handful of private collectors.

Though described in 2012 it was in fact first collected in the latter half of the 19th century with Day (1875-1878) having mentioned the presence of Badis dario in ‘Wynaad’ and its occurrence “along the Western Ghats” (the chain of mountains in southwestern India).

This species was considered to be a phenotype of the similar-looking P. gelius prior to its description.

Following Knight (2013) it is included a group of closely-related species alongside P. gelius and P. canius, the trio being distinguished from other members of the genus Pethia by the following combination of characters: lateral line incomplete with 3-4 por…

This species’ identity was settled and a neotype designated by Knight (2013), with its validity having been discussed since the late 19th century.

P. canius and the closely-related P. gelius were both described by Hamilton (1822) and share the type locality of ‘northeastern Bengal’. Although Hamilton did not provide drawings M’Clelland (1839) included colour illustrations depicting two quite different-looking species.

This species has a somewhat confusing taxonomic history and it remains unclear whether it is conspecific with S. izecksohni (Da Cruz, 1983) or not.

The latter is considered to represent a synonym of S. myersi by Costa (2007), but the majority of authors do not follow the conclusions of that study (see below) and continue to view both as valid.

Tends to be most common in brackish to hypersaline environments such as coastal salt marshes, lagoons and estuaries.

On San Salvador Island, Bahamas, it appears to be the parent of a species group occurring in sympatry and exploiting diverse but specific resources with some spectacular morphological adaptations.

Endemic to San Salvador Island in the Bahamas where it’s known from six hypersaline lakes; Crescent Pond, Osprey Lake, Oyster Lake, Little Lake, Wild Dilly Pond and Moon Rock Pond.

Type locality is ‘San Salvador Island, Bahamas: Crescent Pond, 1 km SE of the Gerace Research Centre, lat 24°06’45″N, long 74°27’28″W’.

This species is a specialised lepidophage with approximately 50 % of the diet comprising the scales of other fishes.

Physical adaptations to this behaviour include its elongate body and jaw mechanism permitting a fast biting action.

When the type series was collected the Sungai Asinua contained clear, slow to fast-moving water with a temperature of 26 °C.

The substrate was composed of mud, sand an…

H. eschwartzae is told apart from other laterally-striped Hyphessobrycon species from the Madre de Dios watershed by the following characters: 4 simple anal-fin rays (vs. 3 in other species listed); 13-15 dentary teeth (vs. 5-11); 6 teeth in the internal premaxillary ro…

This species superficially resembles the popular silver-tipped tetra, Hasemania nana, but can easily be told apart by presence (vs. absence) of an adipose-fin.

It can be told apart from other Hyphessobrycon sp…