The greenstripe barb, silver barb or striped barb (''Puntius vittatus'') is a
tropical freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
and
brackish fish belonging to the subfamily Cyprininae of the family
Cyprinidae
Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest verte ...
. It originates in inland waters in
Asia, and is found in
Pakistan,
India, and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.
The greenstripe barb is an open water, substrate egg-scatterer, and adults do not guard the eggs.
Taxonomy
It was originally described as ''Puntius vittatus'' by F. Day in 1865, and has also been referred to in scientific literature as ''Barbus vittatus''. The word "''vittatus''" means "striped lengthwise", and is pronounced "vy-TAH-tus".
Description
The fish will grow in length of up to 5 centimeters (2 inches).
Habitat
It natively inhabits
ponds,
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...
s and
lakes in
plains. It is often found in
rice fields and is known to enter
brackish water. They live in a
tropical climate in water with a 6.0 - 6.5
pH, a water hardness of 8 - 15
dGH
Degrees of general hardness (dGH or °GH) is a unit of water hardness, specifically of general hardness. General hardness is a measure of the concentration of divalent metal ions such as calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) per volume of water. S ...
, and a temperature range of 68 - 75 °F (20 - 24 °C). It feeds mainly on filamentous
algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...
and
blue-green algae.
Importance to humans
The greenstripe barb is of commercial importance in the aquarium trade and is also commonly used as bait.
See also
*
List of freshwater aquarium fish species
A vast number of aquatic species have successfully adapted to live in the freshwater aquarium. This list gives some examples of the most common species found in home aquariums.
Catfish
Characins and other characiformes
...
References
*
Puntius
Taxa named by Francis Day
Fish described in 1865
Freshwater fish of India
Freshwater fish of Pakistan
Freshwater fish of Sri Lanka
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