Hard-lipped barb

Osteochilus vittatus

Also known as Osteochilus hasseltii, Bonylip barb

FreshwaterFish

Hard-lipped barb (Osteochilus vittatus) — A.H Idham · CC BY-SA 4.0

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–82°F (22–28°C)
pH: 6.0–7.5
Adult size: 11.8 in (30 cm)
Minimum tank: 106 gal (400 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Mekong through Sundaland
Family: Cyprinidae

Overview

The hard-lipped barb is a big, peaceful, plant-and-algae grazer that shoals, so keep several together in a large aquarium where a group has room to work the surfaces all day. It swims in the middle water and rasps biofilm from wood, rock, and leaves, growing to around 30 centimetres. Being gentle, it suits a jumbo community of other large, calm fish, and it will not trouble tankmates it cannot eat. Feed it a green-leaning diet of algae wafers, blanched vegetables, and quality flake and pellets, with the odd frozen meaty food. A tank of around 400 liters is a sensible minimum for a small group.

In the wild

Osteochilus vittatus is widespread across Southeast Asia, from the Mekong through the rivers and floodplains of Sundaland, where it forms shoals in flowing and still waters alike. A roomy tank with open water, a soft bed, driftwood, and hardy or robust plants suits it. Keep it warm at 22 to 28 degrees Celsius with pH 6.0 to 7.5, and give it strong filtration and current, since a group of large grazers is messy.

Good to know

Osteochilus vittatus is a carp-family fish, Cyprinidae, reaching about 30 centimetres. For years it was traded as Osteochilus hasseltii, now treated as an invalid name, with vittatus the accepted one. The genus name means bony lip, for the hardened, ridged lips it uses to scrape algae and detritus from surfaces. It is an important food fish across its range but is not bred in home aquariums.

Did you know

Its name, Osteochilus, literally means bony lip: the fish scrapes algae and detritus with hardened, ridged lips, and in some waters it is stocked deliberately to help graze down blooms of planktonic algae.