Taxonomy & naming
Bleeker described the species in 1851 from Banjarmasin, southern Borneo, and it is now placed in Brachirus, a genus of soles of the family Soleidae that includes several fishes tolerant of fresh water. The Catalog of Fishes gives the type locality as Banjarmasin.
Morphology
A flat, oval sole with both eyes on one side and a rounded tail joined to the dorsal and anal fins. FishBase gives a maximum length of 8 in TL. Like other soles it is a cryptic bottom fish that matches the sand and mud it rests on.
Habitat
FishBase lists the habitat as freshwater and brackish, demersal, with a range from Thailand to Indonesia. It is a euryhaline species that lives on the bottom in estuaries and in the lower courses of rivers.
Feeding
FishBase records that it feeds on benthic invertebrates. In aquaria it takes small sinking foods, such as bloodworm, brine shrimp and finely chopped seafood, and it feeds mainly in the evening.
Mating
Courtship and spawning behaviour are not described for this species in the sources available to the atlas.
Breeding
Eggs, larvae and clutch size are not recorded. The species is not known to have been bred in aquaria.
In the aquarium
Give it a fine sand bottom that it can bury in, a tank with a wide floor area rather than height, and slightly brackish water. Keep it with calm tank mates, since soles are slow feeders and lose out to quick fish. Make sure food reaches the bottom.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List classes Brachirus panoides as Least Concern, last assessed in July 2019. FishBase notes that larger individuals are sold in local food markets and small ones appear in mixed catches.