This species was described from Suriname but no specific locality was given.

It’s currently accepted to occur throughout much of the Amazon river system in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia with additional records from coastal drainages of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana plus the island of Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago).

This fish has been widely available in the aquarium trade in recent years and is sometime referred to by the invented name P. ‘sintangensis’.

It displays a close resemblance to P. bintan and another unidentified fish known to aquarists as P. sp. ‘blue line’ although the inner bluish bands in the dorsal, anal and caudal fins are perhaps a little narrower in P. sp. ‘Sentang’ than the other two.

This species has been known in the aquarium hobby since the mid-twentieth century but has almost always been identified as the congener P. deissneri and appears as such in the majority of aquarium literature.

It can be told apart from congeners by the colour pattern in adult males (see ‘Sexual Dimorphism’) plus possession of 11-12 spinous dorsal-fin rays, 13-14 spinous anal-fin rays and 6-8 segmented anal-fin rays.

This species has occasionally been traded on a commercial basis and was known as P. sp. ‘Manis Mata’ prior to description, with the latter apparently referring to a location some 100 km away from the type locality where the fish do not occur.

It’s said to be slightly easier to maintain than the majority of congeners and is therefore a recommended choice for those ne…

This species has occasionally appears in the aquarium trade in substantial quantities but is not an easy species to maintain in captivity and often susceptible to disease post-import.

It’s sometimes sold as ‘ornate licorice gourami’.

It’s among the smallest members of the gen…

This species is now considered endemic to Java but has been confused with the congeners H. gracilis (from eastern Peninsular Malaysia), H. velox (Sumatra) and H. bongan (Borneo) in the past, while the population formerly considered to inhabit northwestern Peninsular Malaysia has been described as H. divaricatus (Ng and Kottelat, 2013).

This species cannot be considered a suitable home aquarium‚ subject given its eventual size plus the fact it can live for‚ several decades.

It can be told apart from most oth…

This species has been recorded from the Zhujiang (Pearl River), Changjiang (Yangtze River) and Qiantang Jiang in central and southern China.

Type locality is ‘Chang Jiang, China’, referring to the Yangtze.

It’s been adversely affected by dam construction and pollution across certain parts of its range and may be locally extirpated in some cases.

Members of this assemblage can be told apart from other congeners by possession of 44–46 vertebrae, an adipose-fin with a relatively short base (< 20 % SL), a colour pattern comprising either distinct black spots arranged in vertical columns or irregular black vertical lines running along the flanks, and normally a reddish or orangish caudal-fin in life.

This species appears to be unknown in the aquarium trade but is a valued food fish within its native range.

Hemibagrus has been divided into a number of putative species groups which may or may not represent monophyletic assemblages, and following a major review by Ng and Kottelat (2013) H. filamentus is included in the H. nemurus group.