is this a zebra loach or a yoyo loach?
- Thread starter almostaskater62
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doesn't look like a yo-yo to me...pretty sure it is a golden zebra loach...has a few wider stripes with no spots....it is a more likely to be one of those
Even with a good picture it's sometimes hard to be definite with very young examples of this group of Botia.
I can be 100% sure that it's not a Botia striata (Zebra) though.
Patterning on young fish is extremely variable but even with the poor quality of this picture my gut instinct tells me that it is a young Botia histrionica (Golden zebra loach). One of the typical features of young histrionica is the definite Y under the dorsal, but not in the other stripes and the strongly reflective white/ gold body colour.
Young Botia almorhae (Yoyo) are more silver in colour and striping tends not to be quite as black.
Funnily enough, I just bought this unusual fish today which is somewhere between a Botia almorhae and kubotai.
Martin.
I can be 100% sure that it's not a Botia striata (Zebra) though.
Patterning on young fish is extremely variable but even with the poor quality of this picture my gut instinct tells me that it is a young Botia histrionica (Golden zebra loach). One of the typical features of young histrionica is the definite Y under the dorsal, but not in the other stripes and the strongly reflective white/ gold body colour.
Young Botia almorhae (Yoyo) are more silver in colour and striping tends not to be quite as black.
Funnily enough, I just bought this unusual fish today which is somewhere between a Botia almorhae and kubotai.
Martin.
They dont always spell YoYo. Like Martin said (a loach expert BTW), the pattern is quite variable, and when very young are practically indistinguishable from a couple other species (like already mentioned). But I'd like to add not only in young specimens but also mature. When mature they rarely spell yoyo, look at the Yoyo profile on loaches.com http://www.loaches.com/species-index/photos/b/Botia_almorhae_11.jpg/view
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/photos/b/Botia_almorhae_02.jpg/view
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/photos/b/botia_almorhae_12.jpg/view
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/photos/b/botia_almorhae_23.jpg/view
You can see its quite normal for the pattern to not read Yoyo really.
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/photos/b/Botia_almorhae_02.jpg/view
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/photos/b/botia_almorhae_12.jpg/view
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/photos/b/botia_almorhae_23.jpg/view
You can see its quite normal for the pattern to not read Yoyo really.
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yes, the second loach does look like a yo-yo...the paterning is actually almost identical to the paterning on one of my yo-yo's.... i'd trust martin's opinions... i've read many of his posts and posted back and forth with him once on another site, and he is very well educated when it comes to his loaches
Thanks bluekrissyspike 
Come the end of November you can all read the book 'Loaches' being published by TFH :dance:
There is a species called Botia birdii that we have not seen specifically imported but every so often weird looking fish turn up in shipments of Yoyos. They may be this species. Ordinarily, young Yoyos (this one is under 2 inches) have no dots within the striping but this fish does, similar to same size Botia kubotai. Therefore it's unusual, so I had to buy it to see how it grows up.
The common name for Botia almorhae was, like any other "common" name for many species, thought up within the trade. In this case the name Yoyo was very appropriate as most young B. almorhae show this pattern. The name was invented by Ken Childs while working at the fish importers Dolphin International in Los Angeles.
Martin.
Come the end of November you can all read the book 'Loaches' being published by TFH :dance: There is a species called Botia birdii that we have not seen specifically imported but every so often weird looking fish turn up in shipments of Yoyos. They may be this species. Ordinarily, young Yoyos (this one is under 2 inches) have no dots within the striping but this fish does, similar to same size Botia kubotai. Therefore it's unusual, so I had to buy it to see how it grows up.
The common name for Botia almorhae was, like any other "common" name for many species, thought up within the trade. In this case the name Yoyo was very appropriate as most young B. almorhae show this pattern. The name was invented by Ken Childs while working at the fish importers Dolphin International in Los Angeles.
Martin.
