Please help me ID this loach

[rdmpe]

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?

Thanks,
Randy

 

[Fish Hunter]

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

 

[rdmpe]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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 ").

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]

Sorry to be the idiot-of-the-day, but whats so bad about skunk loaches?

 

[carpguy]

They're a small and attractive loach, 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.