Bleeker did not comment on the differences in colouration. He describes the body colour of his specimen from
the Sambas as green, the belly as silvery and all fins and fin rays as golden or dark brownish. Possibly Bleeker in
Batavia did not possess a coloured edition of Müller & Schlegel (1840). Bleeker mentioned O. formosum in at least
eight other publications (Weber & de Beaufort 1911: 283), but in all of them the name appears only in species lists.
In his “Atlas Ichthyologique” Bleeker (1870-1875, Vol. VI: 145, Pl. CCLXXVI) states that Müller & Schlegel
(1844) published a very detailed description and a beautiful figure. However, he was of the opinion that the figure
did not properly reflect the habitus of the species. Bleeker’s own description was based on 11 specimens from
Sumatra, Banka and Borneo. Bleeker did not examine specimens from the type locality. The specimen figured in
the Atlas (see Fig. 11A) is quite different from that in Müller & Schlegel (1840), especially in colouration. In the
Atlas Bleeker describes the colouration as follows [translated]: