Greenstripe barb

For other fishes known as silver barb, see Silver barb.
Greenstripe barb
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae
Genus: Puntius
Species: P. vittatus
Binomial name
Puntius vittatus
(F. Day, 1865)
Synonyms

Barbus vittatus (F. Day, 1865)

The greenstripe barb or striped barb (Puntius vittatus) is a tropical freshwater and brackish fish belonging to the subfamily Cyprininae of the family Cyprinidae. It originates in inland waters in Asia, and is found in Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka. Besides being called silver barb, sometimes it is referred to as striped barb, a name it shares with Puntius johorensis (formerly known as P. eugrammus).

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, streams 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, and a temperature range of 68 - 75 °F (20 - 24 °C). It feeds mainly on filamentous algae 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

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 16, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.