The checker barb (''Oliotius oligolepis'')Kottelat, M. (2013)
The Fishes of the Inland Waters of Southeast Asia: A Catalogue and Core Bibliography of the Fishes Known to Occur in Freshwaters, Mangroves and Estuaries.
''The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 2013, Supplement No. 27: 1–663.'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

cyprinid 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 ver ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to creeks, rivers, and lakes in Sumatra,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It has also been established in the wild in Colombia. The adult males have red fins with black tips. It will grow up to a length of TL. This species is the only known member of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Etymology

The genus name ''Oliotius'' is derived as a combination of a portion of the specific epithet ''oligolepis'' and its former genus name Puntius. The common name "checker barb" (as well as such related names as "checkered barb", "chequer barb" and "checkerboard barb") derives from the black marks on its side similar in appearance to those found on a checkerboard.

Taxonomic issue

This species has sometimes been placed in the genus ''

Barbus ''Barbus'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. The type species of ''Barbus'' is the common barbel, first described as ''Cyprinus barbus'' and now named ''Barbus barbus''. ''Barbus'' is the namesake genus of the subfamil ...

'' though '' Barbus oligolepis'' Battalgil, 1941 properly refers to another fish species that is only found in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. Since Bleeker's ''oligolepis'' is not placed in ''Barbus'', both names are valid.Barbus tauricus oligolepis
, Catalog of Fishes, California Academy of Sciences

Habitat

Checker barbs natively live in a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

climate and prefer

water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

with a pH of 6.0 - 6.5, a water hardness of 10.0 dGH, and a temperature range of 68–75 °F (20–24 °C). Their

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nut ...

diet consists of small

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wo ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s, and plants. An egg-scattering fish, they

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: ...

early in the morning on plants that are the center of the male's territory. Once the

spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...

is completed, the pair will attempt to eat the eggs that they can find.

In the aquarium

The checker barb has commercial importance in the aquarium trade industry; this peaceful fish is sometimes used in community tanks by fish keeping hobbyists. The checker barb is a schooling fish that is well suited to a community aquarium. It requires warm (75-77 °F), soft to medium-hard water. It occupies the medium to lower levels of the aquarium and is an omnivore, doing well on processed foods. The checker barb is a prolific egg-scatterer that lends itself well to the novice breeder.

References

External links

Photos from Fishbase
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1303896 Cyprinid fish of Asia Freshwater fish of Indonesia Fishkeeping Fish described in 1853 Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker