The greenstripe barb, silver barb or striped barb (''Bhava vittata'') is a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Cyprinidae Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family, including the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives the barbs and barbels, among others. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family, and t ...

, the family which includes the carps, barbs and related fishes. This species is found in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. It is the only species in the

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

''Bhava''.

Taxonomy

The greenstripe barb was first formally descripted as ''Puntius vittatus'' in 1865 by the British military surgeon and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Francis Day Francis Talbot Day (2 March 1829 – 10 July 1889) was an army surgeon and naturalist in the Madras Presidency who later became the Inspector-General of Fisheries in British Raj, India and British rule in Burma, Burma. A pioneer ichthyologist, ...

with its type locality given as

Cochin Kochi ( , ), formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernaku ...

In 2023

Hiranya Sudasinghe Hiranya ("gold" in Sanskrit) may refer to: Given name *Hiranya Peiris (born 1974), British astrophysicist *Hiranya Herath (born 1986), Sri Lankan lawyer and politician *Hiranyamayee Lama, Bhutanese politician, elected to the Tshogdu in 1979 Other ...

Lukas Rüber Lukas is an English form of the Greek name Λουκάς, which is Romanized as Loukas. Popularity In 2013, with the alternative spelling of Lucas, it was the ninth most popular name for boys in Australia. Meaning and different spellings *Amhari ...

and Madhava Meegaskumbura proposed the new

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus, ''Bhava'', for this species. This taxon is classified within the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Smiliogastrinae Smiliogastrinae is a subfamily of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Cyprinidae, the family which includes the carps, barbs and related fishes. The fishes in this genus are found in Africa and Asia and are commonly referred to ...

within the family Cyprinidae. The wide distribution of this taxon may indicate that it is a

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

rather than a single species.

Etymology

The greenstripe barb is the only member of the genus ''

Bhava The Sanskrit word ''bhava'' (भव) means being, worldly existence, becoming, birth, be, production, origin,Monier Monier-Williams (1898), Sanskrit English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Archiveभव, bhava but also habitual or emotio ...

'', a word on

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

means "existence or being", an allusion the authors did not explain. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''vittata'', means "banded", an allusion to the stripe on the rear part of the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

in individuals over in length.

Description

The greenstripe barb has black dots on the dorsal, caudal and anal fins. The dot on the dorsal fin is elongated into a band. They young are more stripey. The overall colour is silver with a yellowish-green iridescence and a darker edge to the scales. This species has a maximum published

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of , although is more common.

Distribution and habitat

The greenstripe barb is found in

where it occurs from eastern Pakistan, most of India south of the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

east to

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

and throughout

Peninsular India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the Union territories of In ...

, as well as in Sri Lanka. It can be found in a variety of habitats including isolated ponds, rivers, submerged vegetation, primary streams, coastal and slow flowing streams, pools, lakes,

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s, marshes and paddy fields.

Biology

The greenstripe barb moves slowly over the substrate, picking at algae, zooplankton and detritus. They prefer open waters with mud substrate, sometimes being recorded from river mouths near the sea. They are oviparous and the females scatter eggs among the submerged vegetation.

Utilisation

The greenstripe barb is collected for the

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

trade and also to be used as bait.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2170141 Smiliogastrinae Taxa named by Francis Day Fish described in 1865 Freshwater fish of India Freshwater fish of Pakistan Freshwater fish of Sri Lanka