Rhodeus spinalis is a subtropical freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 and brackish water

Brackish water

Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salty"...

 fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 belonging to the Acheilognathinae

Acheilognathinae

Acheilognathinae, the bitterling-like cyprinids, are a subfamily of cyprinids.Genera contained herein are:* Acanthorhodeus – spiny bitterlings* Acheilognathus* Rhodeus – bitterlings* Tanakia...

 sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates on Hainan Island and the Xijiang River

Xijiang River

The Xi River is the western tributary of the Pearl River in China. It is formed by the confluence of the Gui and Xun Rivers in Wuzhou, Guangxi. It then flows east through Guangdong, and enters the Pearl River Delta just east of the Lingyang Gorge in Zhaoqing. The main branch of the Xi flows...

 basin in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, and is suspected of being native to portions of Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. It was originally described by M. Oshima in 1926. The fish reaches a size of up to 10.0 centimetres (3.9 in).

When spawning, the females deposit their eggs inside bivalves, where they hatch and the young remain until they can swim.