View Full Version : Please help me ID this loach
Hello,
Please help me ID this fish. It is about 3 to 4 inches long and pretty agressive with other fish. It prefers to hide in tight spaces between rocks most of the time. Any IDeas?
http://home.cfl.rr.com/homebrewed/fish/P5060002.JPG
http://home.cfl.rr.com/homebrewed/fish/P5060003.JPG
http://home.cfl.rr.com/homebrewed/fish/P5060004.JPG
Thanks,
Randy
Fish Hunter
06-18-2003, 8:30 PM
Take a look at this. This would be my best guess. Guess is the key word.
http://aquariacentral.com/species/db.cgi?db=fresh&uid=default&ID=0480&view_records=1
Thanks! That looks like a very likely ID. I found some more pages on the Pakistan Loach, including this one with good pictures and info http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/pakloach.htm
Thanks again,
Randy
wetmanNY
06-18-2003, 9:55 PM
Botia almorhae in Randy's link is the accepted modern name. Markings change as they grow. I thought these guys were sociable if they were well-matched and started young.
BTW< a couple of years back I sawthree or four of these guys huge-- maybe eight inches, the biggest I've ever seen, at New World Aquarium on West 8th Street at the time.
carpguy
06-19-2003, 8:18 AM
Most loaches are shoalers and are better off in small groups.
Keeping the eventual size in mind, you might have better luck with your loach if it has a few playmates to tussle with. They do that whole pecking order in a group thing -- sans group, your loach may resort to pecking the other fish. A similar idea to tiger barbs being less aggressive towards other fish given a few more barbs (same idea, actually).
wetmanNY
06-19-2003, 11:43 AM
carpguy, I think the Botia species that you and I like and keep are all sociable in a rough-and-tumble way. But other Botia loaches are quite jealous as they grow: I haven't had Skunk Botia or berdmorei myself, but I hear tell...
carpguy
06-19-2003, 7:02 PM
I've been avoiding the skunk guys for just that reason, but they are my size and I've got that whole curiousity thing. Maybe one day.
I picked up a stray botia histrionica not so long ago and its quite a nice little loach. I think they'll be the next shoal if I can find a few more for the next tank.
http://www.loaches.com/species_images/botia_histrionica_08_large.jpg
Sids were one of my must have fish when I first started drawing up the lists. Hopefully one day. (There should be a mandatory footnote in all those catalogue books: "* You will almost never see this fish no matter how good your LFS :mad: ").
Everytime I see a snail thread or a clown-loach-in-a-too-small-tank (sell-em-when-they-get-too-big) thread go by I feel an urge to sound off about the tremendous small loaches that are out there.
Definitely one of my very favorite groups…
O-man21
06-19-2003, 9:39 PM
Sorry to be the idiot-of-the-day, but whats so bad about skunk loaches?
carpguy
06-19-2003, 10:07 PM
They're a small and attractive loach (http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_morleti.html), they just have a reputation for being very aggressive for a small fish. Some folks don't seem to mind, others report fishycides and aquatic terror.
Loaches are interesting fish, and tend to playfully roughhouse. A litter of puppies comes to mind. From what I've read, the skunks just seem to play a little rougher than most of the others. Personally, I think the skunks are attractive little fish and they seem interesting… I'm not saying you should rule them out, I just think they need to be considered a potential problem and prepared for appropriately. Probably not the best first loach.
Right now I just have the one tank and am plotting the second, and I don't see them fitting in either. Maybe one day.