Calling the loach specialists

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Apr 2, 2002
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Unfortunately, sids are endangered in the wild. Today, apparently, they are farmed and bred using hormones. I got most of mine many years ago. Do you know how they got their name?

Back in 1959 a group of collectors and fish pros were exploring and catching many fish. One of the workers had a pet monkey. The monkey was very popular with all the members of the expedition. Like all monkeys it had a tendency to mimic human behaviors it observed. One day the monkey got ahold of one of the expedition's nets and began trying to catch fish in the stream from which the group were currently collecting.

As luck would have it, the monkey manged to catch a number of fish some of which were a new small undiscovered loach. The scientists had to assign a name to this fish which the monkey had caught. They knew there was no way the could credit a monkey with discovering a new species. That monkey's name was Sidney. And that is how this loach got its name- it was discovered by Sidney the monkey and to obscure this truth, the scientists came up with sidthimunki.



Is it April yet?





sidthimunki: unconfirmed, but possibly named in honour of Aree Sidthimunk, an ex-researcher at the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Thailand.
 
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Lalo J.

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Mar 8, 2020
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Wow, without a doubt, this is an impressive story TTA. I left my city this weekend, but since yesterday I asked for identification help in the Loach Fanatics group on FB and most of the people who participated in the post agree that I have a kubotai loach :) :)
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Lalo, that's great you got an ID on your new loach! Kubotai are smaller than rostratas & easier to find. They are on my short list of "next fish" when I can go to lfs again :)
 
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Lalo J.

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Thanks, I was really very lucky, Kubotai is almost never available here in Mexico, so when receiving a fish like these characteristics, most of the LFS don't make efforts to correctly identify the species and simply sell it with the same name with which they received it, so thanks to all who gave their opinion and contributed information in this thread :D :D .
 
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Apr 2, 2002
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New York
There is one more thing you should do. Try to get at least another 4 kubotai. Most loaches are very social fish. They are very touchy feely. Lone loaches do not do well for the most part. They do not display normal behavior.

I have experienced this. When I got my first small clowns they went into my 45 gal. well planted tank. I need to move them to a larger tank. However, it was very difficult to catch anything in that tank. I managed to catch all of the clowns but one which managed to elude me for months as I was not prepared to pull the tank apart to catch it. I saw how "unhappy" it was alone. It hid a lot. Fortunately, I got lucky. I also had bn plecos in the tank and there were caves for them. On day I spotted the lone loach inside a cave and I was able to net the cave and get the clown that way.

It's behavior changed markedly once it was back with more of its own kind. Watching a group of clowns interact can be one of the more entertaining things to watch in a tank.
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Lalo, ask your lfs friends to keep an eye out for young "mixed" loaches or call them when they get new fish in (weekly?). Maybe they can order some? Winter is loach season! You're most apt to find them now...Keep the young kubotai ID pics on your phone so you can be ready & not accidentally get yoyos.

I strongly agree with TTA, more loaches are MUCH better.
 
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Lalo J.

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I agree with you, more loaches are better but unfortunately these loaches are no longer available from suppliers in Mexico City, at least for the moment. I know the direct supplier that works with the LFS and I contacted him but the loaches are gone, I am aware of the updates and I also know other suppliers, I hope they can be on the lists soon.
 
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