Bhavani

An obligate dweller of shallow, fast-flowing, highly-oxygenated headwaters and minor tributaries characterised by stretches of riffles and runs broken up by pools or cascades in some cases. Substrates are normally composed of smaller rocks, sand and gravel with jumbles of boulders, and whil...

Appears endemic to tributaries of the Bhavani river system in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu state, southern India including the Pykara, Avalanche and Kaity streams. Type locality is 'Ootacamund Lake, Pykara, Avelanche and Kaity streams, Neilgherry Hills, India', with the former now often shortened to Ooty Lake.

This species is still considered a member of the genus Nemacheilus by some sources, but it was reclassified and placed in Acanthocobitis by Grant (2008). Acanthocobitis sinuata, generally considered a junior synonym of A. mooreh (Kottelat, 2012b), also appears distinct and differs in geographical distribution plus number of dorsal-fin rays (2-3/9-10 in A. mooreh vs. 2/8-9 in A. sinuata) and some aspects of colour pattern.

This species has become an extremely popular aquarium fish since it first appeared in the ornamental trade during the late 1990s, and it has been sold under various names including 'Denison's barb', 'denisoni barb', 'Denison's flying fox', 'rose line shark', 'bleeding-eye barb', 'red flash barb', and 'Indian flasher barb'. In India it is known locally as 'Miss Kerala' and 'Chorai Kanni' ( literally 'bleeding eyes').

This species is feisty and largely unsuitable for the general community aquarium. This is not to say it must be kept alone, rather that tankmates must be selected with care and proper research. Slow-moving or long-finned species should certainly be omitted because they're likely to struggle with the necessary level of water movement and may end up with nipped fins.

This species is clearly unsuitable for the home aquarium given its eventual size and natural behaviour, and we know of only a handful of private aquarists with the facilities required to house it long-term. The grouping currently contains four species but is in urgent need of review with a number of additional taxa thought to exist and B. yarrelli possibly representing a synonym of B. bagarius.

Following Roberts (1997) G. ariza can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters: body with variably intense thin stripes dustributed mostly above the lateral line; larger individuals sometimes with a broad midlateral stripe; 32-35 lateral scales; 7-8/1/5-6 transverse scale rows; 8-9 branched dorsal-fin rays 8-9; 22-24+ 11-12=34(4), 35 (3) vertebrae; live colour pattern variable, overall dull dirty white to greyish, silvery or yellow.