Bintan has been developed for tourism over the last decades and is heavily-promoted by Indonesia, with luxury beach resorts and golf courses increasing in number. Further deforestation has occurred in order to establish large rubber plantations in the interior of the island. B. miniopinna is now restricted to a few remaining pockets of primary peat swamp forest and has been listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 1996.

This species occasionally appears in the aquarium hobby, but the trade is largely reliant on commercially-produced ‘tiger barbs’ of questionable origin.

It was considered a synonym of P. anchisporus for a number of decades following Alfred (1963), but revalidated by Kottelat and Tan (2011).

The type series was collected from a small clear-water stream with a pH of 6.0, forming a series of riffles and deeper pools, with a maximum width of 5 metres and depth ranging from 10 cm to 1 metre. The substrate was composed of sand gravel and rocks, with some leaf litter and overhanging marginal vegetation.

Endemic to northern and central Borneo, with records from the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, Brunei Darussalam, and the Indonesian provinces North Kalimantan (Kalimantan Utara) and East Kalimantan (Kalimantan Timur).

Type locality is ‘Kajan River, eastern slope of central Kalimantan, Indonesia [Borneo]’.

Nematabramis species are found a variety of habitat-types, from swiftly-flowing affluent streams to pools, lakes, and degraded swamps. Based on the available collection records juveniles and subadults of N. everetti display a preference for fast-moving water whereas adults are found in deeper, slower stretches of minor tributaries.

It looks particularly similar to N. alestes with both species possessing a colour pattern comprising a dark lateral stripe on the body, but can be distinguished immediately by possessing barbels longer than the head (vs. shorter than the head in N. alestes).

It is thought to have been extirpated from the Chao Phraya and Mae Klong rivers, Lake Songkhla, and the entire island of Java due to a variety of anthropogenic factors, and the Mekong populations have also been drastically reduced. In particular, it is sensitive to pollution and gillnetting, and is heavily overfished.

There is a fish of unknown geographical origin which matches the majority of diagnostic features for L. setigerum with the exception that the dark lateral stripe is absent in the anterior portion of the body and is not composed of interconnected spots. It is relatively common in the aquarium trade and included here as L. cf. setigerum until a confirmed identity is established.

The five species which currently comprise Luciosoma can be distinguished by elements of colour pattern. Popta described the colour pattern of L. pellegrinii as follows: body colour olive dorsally, with dark-edged scales, yellow ventrally; a lateral series of dark spots on the flank forming a midlateral band which extends onto the opercle but not the head; 4-8 blackish-brown, distinctly-separate spots on the lateral line; fins yellow; dorsal and anal fins with a blackish-brown band; anterior half of some pectoral-fin rays blackish-brown…

Apparently native to Peninsular Malaysia plus the Greater Sunda Islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. Reports of this species from the Mekong, Chao Phraya, and other rivers in Indochina refer to the congener L. rubripinna (see ‘Notes’).

Type locality is ‘Indonesia: Borneo: Kalimantan Selatan: Banjarmasin’.