What kind of loach is this?

[melina]

Hi

I bought this fish a few years ago, it should be a botia dario. But it doesn't look like the other ones.





Is this a botia dario or something else?

Melina

[Graeme Robson]

Looks like a adult Botia rostrata.

Nice specimen!

[helen nightingale]

that is what i thought too. they are nice fish

[melina]

Cool then I have a Rostrata. But aren't his markings different from other Rostrata's?

[helen nightingale]

i bought one of mine as a yoyo with slightly different markings, and then its markings changed as it grew. rostrata seem to have quite variable patterns. they can look a bit like histrionica and kubotai as well as dario.

[melina]

Thanks for the info.

Yesterday I saw small kubotai's in a shop. But at first I really thought they were little histronica. Do they also look a lot like eachother when they're little? Sorry for the questions but I'm just getting to now all different kinds of loaches. I only knew the ones I had before I got to know this website.

[plaalye]

Melina have you looked at the species index on this site? There are some good pics there of different botias in different stages of development. I'm a newbie too and I find it very difficult to see distinct differences. Especially between histrionica and kubotai.

[melina]

yes I did. But then when I think I know the different kinds (at least the ones I like), I see pics or loaches in shops and I can't recognise them. Like with my rostrata.

[piggy4]

I've noticed that not all Rostrata's have this busy pattern , i wonder if it is a male trait Mark [duff] shows a couple of his fish with this pattern also , out of my group one or two are getting this too, they are also darker in colour , and slimmer , wheras the others that seem to keep the twin bar look , are plumper