Photo thanks to

Name:
Scientific name: Puntius lineatus
Common name: Striped barb
AKA: Lined barb
Mistakenly or previously labelled: Barbus lineatus/ Striuntius lineatus

Country of origin: Asia – Borneo; Malaysia; Sri Lanka
pH: 4.0 – 7.0
Temperature: 20 - 26c
Hardness: 18 – 179 ppm
Water flow: low - standard
Oxygenation: standard

Maximum size: 5.5 cm

Diet: Live, frozen, flake & pellet foods – it is an omnivore. It does best with regular live food and some vegetable matter, such as spirulina and algae wafers.

Breeding:
Males: smaller, slimmer, brighter colours
Females: larger, rounder, duller colours

They have not been known to breed in aquariums.

Lifespan: years

Tank companions:

They are NOT good tank companions with shrimps.

They are a schooling species. They should be kept in groups of 8+ to promote males sparring and prevent shyness in the group.

They are peaceful and shy. Other tankmates of a similarly peaceful nature & size are ideal, such as loaches, tetras that are large enough not to fit in their mouths, etc.

As with any fish they will eat any fish small enough to fit in their mouths, and equally can be eaten by any fish large enough to eat them. This should be taken into account when choosing tankmates.

Stocking plans can be checked with aqadvisor.com

Tank:
Minimum tank size is 2.5 ft for a small group. More room is needed for a larger group and/or tankmates.

They could be kept in a heavily planted tank with open areas for swimming, floating plants for cover, dark substrate and driftwood, or a biotype with sand (or 2Tone’s DIY substrate), rounded rocks, driftwood, tannins and heavy planting.

Confused with:
There are other 47 recognised species in the genus, 5 of which are allowable imports to Australia:
Puntius everetti - Clown Barb/ Everett’s barb - Barbus everetti
Puntius lineatus - Striped Barb/ Lined barb - Barbus lineatus
Puntius oligolepis - Checkered Barb/ Checker barb – Barbus oligolepis
Puntius semifasciolatus of minimum length 3 cm SL - Golden Barb, Chinese Barb - Barbus sachsii,
Puntius vittatus - Kooli Barb, Greenstripe Barb - Barbus vittatus
Until recently these and many other genus were known as Puntius – this is still the genus name given on the allowable import list.

Puntius lineatus is easily confused with other lined barbs from SE Asia:
Puntius gemellus
Puntius johorensis
Puntius lineatus – 0-1 pairs of barbels, while the others have 2
Puntius trifasciatus

It is a silver fish, with 5 horizontal dark stripes and clear fins.

Puntius lineatus (previous synonym) are legal imports to Australia as of 27/01/2014 (list last updated 16/10/13).
http://www.environment.gov.au/system...mport-list.pdf

The IUCN Red List reports Puntius lineatus (previous synonym) as a species which is of least concern, with an unknown population trend, at 01/02/2014:
http://www.iucnredlist.org/search
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/166621/0

It is very important not to release any aquarium specimens into our waterways. Any that are not sold or re-homed/ given away, can often be re-sold to aquarium stores. If they are homed in ponds, care should be taken that they cannot escape in run-off into our waterways. Even if fish are native & local they should not be moved from one waterway to another, as this can transfer disease. If they are not local fish, they can both spread disease and either out-compete or eat local fish, shrimp & plants, causing their demise.

They are good fish for beginners.

Relevant threads:

Systomus pentazona, Five banded barb:
http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showt...highlight=barb

Filamentosa barb recommendation:
http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showt...ia+filamentosa

References:

Fishbase:
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Puntius-lineatus.html

Seriously Fish:
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/south-a...-nomenclature/
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/puntius-lineatus/

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striuntius_lineatus

Pics & threads with pics:

Photo thanks to

DE
24/04/2014