Skip to content
Lumisia Animals
← Find animals
Freshwater animals

Giant barb

Amazing fact

The giant barb has a large head and no barbels around its mouth.

Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB)
Giant barb in its habitat (illustration)

No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.

An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

The giant barb has a large head and no barbels around its mouth.

SourceLeibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) — Giant barb

Check your card before sharing

Preparing your card…

The card and link show only the animal and its discovery. Check them with a grown-up before you send them.

THE REAL WORLD

The real Giant barb

Scientific name
Catlocarpio siamensis
Japanese name
パーカーホ
Group
Freshwater animals
Order
Cypriniformes
Family
Cyprinidae
Genus
Catlocarpio
Facts about the real animal.
01

A member of the carp family that lives in the Mekong and Chao Phraya Rivers.

鳥羽水族館 — パーカーホ
02

It grows huge, and it is said that it can become extremely heavy.

鳥羽水族館 — パーカーホ

How the Giant barb lives

During the rainy season, they move onto land flooded by the river. They mainly eat algae and the fruits of flooded land plants. During the dry season, they tend to stay in deep pools in the main river channel.

Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB)

Basic data

Weight
up to 300 kg
Range
Mekong River, Chao Phraya River, and Thailand
鳥羽水族館

Where the Giant barb has been recorded

World map with dots where the Giant barb has been recorded
Each dot marks a place with observations or specimens shared on GBIF. Some records are of animals that strayed or were brought by people, so the dots are not always where the animal lives.

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesAsiaRivers and wetlands

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

简体中文
巨暹罗鲤
繁體中文
巨暹羅鯉
Tiếng Việt
Cá hô

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

Report a mistake

RELATIVES

Others in Cyprinidae

Small-scale bitterling in its habitat (illustration)

Small-scale bitterling

Tokyo bitterling in its habitat (illustration)

Tokyo bitterling

Common carp in its habitat (illustration)

Common carp

Goldfish in its habitat (illustration)

Goldfish

Striped Bitterling in its habitat (illustration)

Striped Bitterling

Flat Bitterling in its habitat (illustration)

Flat Bitterling

Dark chub in its habitat (illustration)

Dark chub

Japanese white crucian carp in its habitat (illustration)

Japanese white crucian carp

MORE TO MEET

More animals to meet

Shoebill in its habitat (illustration)

Shoebill

Common kingfisher in its habitat (illustration)

Common kingfisher

Blakiston's fish owl in its habitat (illustration)

Blakiston's fish owl

Capybara in its habitat (illustration)

Capybara