Five-banded barb

Desmopuntius pentazona

Also known as Pentazona barb

FreshwaterFish

Five-banded barb (Desmopuntius pentazona) — NasserHalaweh · CC BY-SA 4.0

Care at a glance

Temperature: 73–81°F (23–27°C)
pH: 5.5–7.0
Adult size: 2 in (5 cm)
Minimum tank: 20 gal (75 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Easy
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Common
Origin: Borneo (Baram River drainage, Sarawak)
Family: Cyprinidae

Overview

Keep them in a group of 8 to 10 in a tank of 75 liters or larger. They have the tiger barb look without the fin nipping, so they sit in the middle of the water column, peaceful and schooling, and settle better in numbers. Water should run warm, 23 to 27 C, soft, and acidic, with a pH from 5.5 to 7. Feed small flakes, micro pellets, and frozen or live foods like daphnia and bloodworms. Pair them with other small, calm fish that suit the same soft, acidic, dimly lit setup.

In the wild

Five-banded barbs come from blackwater peat swamps and slow forest streams in the Baram River drainage of Sarawak, on Borneo. The water there is soft, acidic, and stained brown with tannins, shaded over leaf litter and dark, decaying substrate. To match that, give them a tank with a dark bottom, a layer of dried leaves, some driftwood, and dim light, with the flow kept gentle. Run the water warm at 23 to 27 C and on the acidic side, anywhere from pH 5.5 to 7, and add botanicals or peat to keep it tannin-stained.

Good to know

This is a small cyprinid in the family Cyprinidae, reaching about 5 cm as an adult. It is an egg scatterer with no parental care, and breeding is moderately tricky since it needs a separate dim, soft-water tank to go anywhere. Most kept fish are wild caught or trade stock rather than mass bred. A healthy adult lives several years.

Did you know

The dark vertical bars are camouflage for life among leaf litter and roots, where broken light and shadow help the fish disappear against the bottom. In the soft, tannin-stained water they evolved in, those bands and the warm body color read far stronger than they do under bright tank lighting, which is part of why dim light and a dark substrate show them off best.