Loaches Online Forum

Best of luck to you and your mom, Martin.

Mike

Helen, I was experimenting with the video on my parents camera again this evening ( ), whilst waiting for our fish shipments, and I took a short clip of your 'mystery loach'....

http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k183/ ... h=imgAnch1

He's in a tank with some Festivums, Schistura nicholsi, and Garra fuliginosa and is now being well behaved. I think he's already looking less thin than he was to start with too.

The video clips are a lot clearer when I watch them in Nikon View (the programme that came with my camera) but becomes rather more pixelated on photobucket for some reason. Never mind, I hope you like it.

Emma

Lovely!!

Cheers Emma

my work computer is too decrepid to watch the film though never mind its an excuse to have a look at more fish porn when i get home

i am glad to see he is still looking like a right character, and getting a bit fatter

i loved the way that red tailed fish poked his head out, and then got camera shy

Glad you enjoyed it, he really is a gorgeous-looking loach.

Emma

do you reckon he will turn out to be a hard bastard?

I reckon he'll be just fine with other moderately fiesty botias to keep him occupied, such as the B. almorhae's that he came in with. I think the reason that he was being a bit aggressive at the shop was probably our fault for initially moving him to a tank that the young Heros notatus were occupying at the time. Stock tanks are quite small, compared to the average sized tanks these sort of fish are normally kept in long term. I think he'll settle into yours just fine.

Emma

lol cute

my mum has named my yoyos ASBO fish, so even if he is a bit hard, he should fit in well when he has lots of companions. thanks for reassuring me!

Helen,

Here's an updated pic of your mystery loach. I think he's starting to get a little belly on him now.



Emma

What a gorgeous fish!!
Any ideas what species it is?

I would say that this is B. kubotai, definetly too elongated and spotted to be rostrata.....could possibly be a B. almorhae as that species tends to get a reticulated pattern over time, but I do not think to this extent. Possibility 3 is its a hybrid....doubt it....highly. No other species fits the bill, can't really be one of Kamphol's "Tenaaserim Emperor Loaches." So it must be a B. kubotai.

Mike

It does look most like the "veiled" pattern of kubotai to me.
It seems to have more yellow on the fins than any I have seen before.
http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/bo ... anmar.html

It came dircetly from India though, not via any wholesalers etc.