Kabini

Barilius bakeri is a fast-swimming cyprinid endemic to the Western Ghats of southwestern India, with records from many rivers in Kerala and Karnataka. It is traded as 'royal danio', 'blue-spotted hill trout' and 'blue-dotted mirror fish', and has a single row of bluish-green spots that get smaller with age. Its well-oxygenated, fast-flowing rivers are being polluted and degraded by exotic species and sand mining.

Dawkinsia rubrotinctus is a cyprinid from southern India, considered widespread throughout the Cauvery drainage in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It may have appeared in the trade under the misapplied names Puntius arulius and P. tambraparniei. Three small, well-defined dark body markings separate it from D. arulius, D. srilankensis and D. tambraparniei, in which the markings are larger and more diffuse.

Mesonoemacheilus petrubanarescui is a loach from the Netravati and Kabini river basins in the Western Ghats of southern India. It may be endemic to these two drainages. The dorsal surface carries 7-8 dark, saddle-shaped markings and the flanks a varying number of broken bars. It is unclear if it has been traded outside India, but it may turn up among shipments of M. guentheri or M. triangularis.

Pethia nigripinnis is a small cyprinid of cool, flowing hill streams in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, apparently endemic to the southern Western Ghats. Adult males have black dorsal, anal, pelvic and pectoral fins. Its need for cooler temperatures makes it unlikely to suit the general community aquarium, and it will probably do best alone or with comparably-sized species needing similar conditions.

The porthole bagrid, Hemibagrus punctatus, is a catfish known only from the Cauvery (Kaveri) river system in southern India. The IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered (possibly extinct), and at its confirmed localities in the Kabini, Bhadra and Moyar systems it was last collected in 1998 or earlier. It has been available only very occasionally in the aquarium trade, and its flanks carry dark spots arranged in vertical columns.