Desmopuntius is a genus of small to medium barbs split out from the old Puntius/Systomus grouping, native to Sundaland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Laos, where most species live in slow, often acidic blackwater and peat-swamp streams under forest cover. The atlas covers 9 species, mostly small at 2 in to around 4.5 in, sharing the classic barb silhouette: a laterally compressed, silvery body carrying one or more dark vertical or diagonal bands.
This genus supplies some of the aquarium hobby's oldest and most familiar schooling barbs, including the tiger barb complex, Desmopuntius hexazona (six-banded tiger barb) and D. pentazona (fiveband barb), plus the striped barb D. johorensis and the boldly patterned snakeskin barb D. rhomboocellatus, all active, hardy community fish typically kept in groups. Conservation status is comparatively reassuring for a Southeast Asian freshwater genus: five of nine species are Least Concern, with only one Near Threatened, one Data Deficient, and two Not Evaluated, though several depend on the same peat-swamp and blackwater habitats under pressure from deforestation and drainage across the region.