Lepidocephalichthys berdmorei or tomaculum?

[Batch]

Hey,
I of course couldn't resist and bought all 5 of the "pepper loaches" at one of our pet stores. Not sure on the exact species... either
Lepidocephalichthys berdmorei or Lepidocephalichthys tomaculum...
tho they really do look alot like minature weather loaches to me
What do the experts think?

In the bag


In the QT tank. All 5 are eating and active.



Speaking of weather loaches, I saw a couple of mine in the mini-pond this
morning. Looks like they survived the "winter" just fine


Cheers,
Batch

[Graeme Robson]

They look like Lepidocephalichthys guntea to me. These loaches are distributed from Pakistan, Northern India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and they do tend to be highly variable in patterns. I think i counted the same amount of dorsal fin rays as the Lepidocephalichthys guntea.

Nice looking specimens!

[Batch]

Hey Graeme,
Is the main difference the # of dorsal fin rays? I think it is 8 or maybe 7.
After taking another look thru the pics in the index, it seems to match
Martin's pic fairly well:


So guntea it is!

Thanks,
batch