Leptobotia rubrilabris is a unique fish in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In Chinese, its name means Loachidae with red lips. The pale red color of its thick mouth gives its Chinese name the word "red lips".

In addition to the "red lips" feature, the body color of Leptobotia rubrilabrisvaries greatly. Some are bright red with irregular brown-black spots on the sides, or only with markings on the back, or brown without markings all over the body.

Leptobotia rubrilabrisused to be widely distributed in the main and tributaries of the upperYangtze River. It preferred to inhabit the bottom of the river. In the 1950s, it occupied a certain proportion of the catches in the middle and lower reaches of the Minjiang River, and then gradually became scarce.