This species is most easily told apart from its only congener P. dayi by lacking (vs. possessing) two dark, irregular lateral stripes on the head and body, and a shorter caudal-fin in males.

The results of phylogenetic analyses by Rüber et al. (2006) suggest that Pseudosphromenus is most closely-related to Malpulutta in an evolutionary sense.

P. chola was retained in Puntius sensu stricto, of which members are defined by the following combination of characters: adult size usually less than 120 mm SL; maxillary barbels absent or present; rostral barbels absent; 3-4 unbranched and 8 branched dorsal-fin rays; 3 unbranched and 5 branched anal-fin rays; last unbranched dorsal-fin ray weak or strong and unserrated; lateral line complete with 22-28 pored body scales…

Wild examples are rarely-seen in the aquarium hobby although selectively-bred ornamental strains are widely-available for which care is identical.

These are normally traded as ‘red’ or ‘yellow’ chromide and have a solid yellow-orange colour pattern with no dark elements.

It exhibits a widespread sympatry with the con…