How Big Can the Striped Small Barb Grow? An Analysis of Adult Fish Body Length

The striped small barb is a kind of fish, also known as seven-star fish and red-eye ring, distributed in ditches or small streams among the plains of southern China and Taiwan, China, and is a common freshwater fish. Nowadays many people have also begun to farm striped small barbs, so how big can the striped small barb grow?

1. How Big the Striped Small Barb Can Grow

The striped small barb has a relatively small body size, generally only 5-10 cm. Males are relatively smaller, while females are relatively larger.

2. Morphological Characteristics of the Striped Small Barb

The body is laterally compressed and spindle-shaped, with one pair of barbels, a red sheen above the eyes, and large scales. The fish body is silver-blue, darker on the back and golden-yellow on the belly, with 4 black horizontal stripes and several irregular small black spots on the sides of the body. The caudal fin is forked, and in males the edge of the dorsal fin and the caudal fin are tinged with orange-red. It prefers to inhabit slow-flowing areas of canals, field ditches and ponds in the middle and lower reaches of plains rivers, and often swims mixed with small fish such as stone carps. It is omnivorous, feeding on small invertebrates and filamentous algae.

Female fish have 4 to 6 obvious horizontal spots on the sides of the body, while the belly of male fish is bright red, and the sides of the body likewise bear several horizontal spots. In addition, the ends of the fins of both male and female fish are pale orange-red, and the area around the eyes is also red. Therefore, anglers generally call it “red-eyed one”.

It has strong adaptability, can grow in water temperatures of 17-26°C, eats animal-based feed, and is an egg-laying fish.

Farming the striped small barb is still relatively simple; it is a fairly easy freshwater fish to keep, but the individual is relatively small.