Filament barb, Poovali paral
Dawkinsia filamentosa, the filament barb, or poovali paral is a species of barb. Young fish have barely any color and black spots. They start having more color at three months old. The fish is a swift swimmer. Males are larger than females and they fertilize eggs by swimming into the cloud of eggs. The species is most commonly found in coastal floodplains near the Southwest Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This species is also known as blackspot barb.
Its generic name, Dawkinsia, is named after renowned British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, for "his contribution to the public understanding of science and, in particular, of evolutionary science".
Endemic to but widespread within the Western Ghats mountains region of southern India in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and possibly restricted to the south of the Karnataka.
Type locality is ‘Alleppey’, also known as Alappuzha, situated between Vembanad Lake and the Arabian Sea, Kerala state, southwestern India
According to Pethiyagoda and Kottelat (2005) this species is most common in lowland coastal floodplains. It’s found in both fresh and brackish waters of rivers, estuaries, coastal marshes and reservoirs.
