We went fish store shopping across the border to a store called "The Fish Place" in North Tonawanda, NY. There was a tank there with 8 Eel Loaches hiding under a sponge filter. The fish store guy called them a "Golden Loach". With the loaches swimming willy-nilly in panic from the filter being moved we could not get a close look at them, but took all 8 of them regardless. Being somewhat "dumb as a stump", I acclimated them over the course of an hour or so and then released them into the tank, but never bothered to get a few pics while the opportunity presented itself. Here is where the "dumb as a stump" part comes in....... so they enter the tank cautiously and then proceed to collectively hide from view. Ahhh, I think to myself........ lets get a picture of them......... (Now Dave? Really, not during acclimation but now that they are hiding?........ "Dumb as a Stump"!) Several weeks later Tracy was finally able to grab a few very quick low light shots of different body parts of one of the "Golden Loaches" but never a full body, focused photo of an entire loach.
A positive ID can not be obtained from the head shot below but from the picture and our very scant observations we believe the loaches to actually be "Pangio anguillaris". The lateral line, colour of the body and the absense of nasal barbells, plus what appears to be the forming of the nasal growth is the basis of our ID. However, I am sure more experienced folks might be able to further confirm our finding or point us in another direction. Any takers? What do you think they might be? (photo was taken with a 100 MM macro lens at ISO 1600 under poor light. It has been tweaked to try and make the subject matter viewable)
![Image](http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l619/Uslanja/_MG_2090_edited-1_zpsjcyypxmn.jpg)
Dave & Tracy; Loving, Caring and enjoying Creation.