Pseudobarbus is a genus of small cyprinid minnows endemic entirely to South Africa, where its species are known collectively as redfins for the reddish-orange wash that often spreads across the fins, especially on breeding males. They are elongate, barb-shaped fish generally under 6.5 in, confined to isolated headwater streams and rivers of the Cape Fold ecoregion and adjacent Highveld drainages. The atlas covers 13 species, including the Eastern Cape redfin, Doring River redfin, Giant redfin, and Verlorenvlei redfin, names that mostly trace each fish to the single river system it calls home.
Pseudobarbus is far more a conservation icon than an aquarium-trade genus; almost none of its species reach the hobby. The IUCN tally is stark for a group this size, with 5 Endangered, 2 Critically Endangered, 2 Vulnerable, and 2 Near Threatened species out of 13. Invasive bass and trout, water abstraction for agriculture, alien vegetation choking riverbanks, and drought and wildfire hitting these small isolated populations are the recurring pressures. Captive-breeding and reintroduction work for some of the most threatened species is underway within South Africa as part of broader efforts to save the country's endemic freshwater fauna.
Older literature often lumped these fish into the wide-ranging genus Barbus before Pseudobarbus was recognized as a distinct, southern African lineage restricted to the Cape and adjoining regions. Because so many species are confined to a single small catchment, the genus has become a useful test case in South African ichthyology for how freshwater diversity there evolved in isolated river systems, and taxonomic work refining the boundaries between Pseudobarbus and its Cape relatives continues as more populations are surveyed and compared genetically.