Loach ID please (updated pic of B. dario)

[loachmom]

Hi,

Today I visited a lfs with my daughter. As we were leaving she noticed a loach all alone in a tank of about 30 guppies. It looked so forlorn and skinny that I bought it. Now, I'm not sure what it is. I think either a B. dario or B. histrionica .
He has been eating like a little pig since I put him in QT. Tomorrow I'll start a course of levamisole. I hope he'll like living with my 5 kubotai once he's through QT. The store owner said that he had been there for a long time.
The first picture is right after I put him in the tank, and the second picture is his full belly after a good feeding.



Thanks for any help.

[Emma Turner]

Hi loachmom, that's Botia dario. They have an unmistakable head shape. Best of luck getting him into good shape.

Emma

[loachmom]

Thank you, Emma. I'm glad to know for sure what he is. Hopefully he continues to thrive.

[OneWay]

I hope he makes it, he looks tiny Good luck.

He should get along just fine with Kubotia's. I have 2 with 6 darios. There is some bickering but nothing harmful or stressful

[loachmom]

Thank you, One Way. He's about 2.25" TL and very skinny. I'm hoping that he fattens up nicely, and that he's not sick in any way. He doesn't act sick, at least not too sick to eat.

Welcome to LOL forums!

[Martin Thoene]

At 2.5" that's a very oddly shaped and marked B. dario.It looks like it should be under 1" to have that appearance.

Martin.

[OneWay]

At 2.5" that's a very oddly shaped and marked B. dario.It looks like it should be under 1" to have that appearance.

Martin.

I assumed it was smaller as well,, when mine arrived they were ~2" and looked like this:

[loachmom]

He is an odd looking thing, I'll admit. I just rechecked my measurement, and my earlier estimate of 2.25"TL is just about right. He's at least 2"TL.

I think he's nearly starved. The owner was sprinkling fish food in the tanks when I was there. I was glad to see that he was feeding the fish. However, for a bottom feeder like this loach to compete with a tank full of hungry guppies is asking a bit much.

This loach has a tremendous appetite, and he's a fiesty little bugger. There are some cories in with him for QT, and he won't let them anywhere near his food.

Here's a picture from a few minutes ago.


Thanks for your input, Martin and OneWay.
Your fish looks so much better than mine, OneWay. I hope mine colors up soon.

[Ashleigh]

Could be looking a bit oddly shaped as its so skinny-clown loach don't look like proper shaped clown loach when they are dreadfully under weight.

Good luck with him loachmom, I hope he makes a speedy recovery. Hes lucky that you spotted him when you did


Ashleigh

[piggy4]

These are what we call the golden Dario's , they look as if their patterns are reversed , some seem to retain this look for a long time , though for how long ? its thought that Hamilton thought this variety was Botia Geto ? they must display quite varied patterns depending on catchment site's !

[OneWay]

He is an odd looking thing, I'll admit. I just rechecked my measurement, and my earlier estimate of 2.25"TL is just about right. He's at least 2"TL.

I think he's nearly starved. The owner was sprinkling fish food in the tanks when I was there. I was glad to see that he was feeding the fish. However, for a bottom feeder like this loach to compete with a tank full of hungry guppies is asking a bit much.

This loach has a tremendous appetite, and he's a fiesty little bugger. There are some cories in with him for QT, and he won't let them anywhere near his food.

Here's a picture from a few minutes ago.


Thanks for your input, Martin and OneWay.
Your fish looks so much better than mine, OneWay. I hope mine colors up soon.

Well oddly enough, last night I observed one of my +3" darios get flushed from a hidy hole right before lights out. I think he was sleeping and got scared by something. The coloration suprized me because it was identical to yours. This is the first time I have seen one "paled out". So the coloration might be due to stress, lighting, or just a method of trying to "blend in" the surrounding substrate. However, his color returned to normal within a minute, so fast I almost missed it.

I found mine love small crevices to hide in,, they squeeze themselves into spots I find unbelievable. I am lucky if I can see a tail sticking out. It took me near 3 weeks to count all 6 of my small darios. I normally could only count 5 max.

He is looking better and if he is eating like a hog then that sounds great. Good luck with your little guy, they are a fun species.

OneWay

[loachmom]

Thanks Ashleigh I'm glad I found him, too.

That's interesting, piggy4. I'm curious now to see what he's going to look like later. I also have some questions about how he's going to behave in a tank that has kuhlis in it. He'll also have kubotai with him, too. The reason I ask is because he's in a QT right now with cories, and he's being a real pain to them, snipping at them. I hope that he'll be better behaved when he has the kubotai to interact with. Or will he be a menace in my tank?

OneWay, your post reminded me that I should give him some better hiding spots. For the time being, I pushed his PVC pipe up against the back wall to make a tighter spot for him to squeeze into. Tomorrow, I'll find him a coconut shell or something.
In my big loach tank, my kubotai are always squeezing into the smallest cracks in their big piece of driftwood. I also have lots of coconut caves for them, too.

Thanks for the input

[mickthefish]

oneways spot on with dario's finding the smallest crevice/ gap they can fit in, here's a pic of one of my adults that found it's place inbetween the tubes it should be using.


mick

[OneWay]

that is a halirious picture, I love it

[loachmom]

Here's a new picture from today. This loach is doing very well.


Mick, that's a great photo. Thanks for sharing it.