Well katt, I got 6 of these from another fishkeeper. He found them to be extremely hyper and constantly annoying other fish, so wanted rid of them.
I know where they came from and saw others of the shipment in the shop. These guys were growing at an alarming rate and rapidly overtook the fish still in the shop. They grew quickly to around 2.5 inches then slowed right down.
You are right in your mention of Clown Loach. We had a lot of speculation going on here as to what their genetic makeup is. The reason for this is that Czech fish breeders are notorious for hybridizing species.
Even as youngsters these fish had proportions far more like Clown loaches than young
histrionica, almorhae, kubotai or
rostrata. They also were quite orange in general body colour and had noticeable red in the fins. They have matured into fish that rather resemble the "Emporer" Botia from the Tennasserim River:
2.5"
5"
Mine @ 2.5"
Lately, their stripes have started to diffuse somewhat. I am going to create an article on LOL showing their development stages as we have for other similar species. Steve (The Dark One) is going to use the pics in his paper that he is writing on this group of fishes as well.
Behaviour wize, I've never experienced the antisocial nature that Pablo reported while he owned them. They are absolutely the most up-front
Botia species that I've ever owned and they are very interactive with me.
As possible hybrids they represent a dilemna to me as I'm very against that kind of thing. When
Botia are so difficult to breed what is the point of mixing species genes? However, they are very nice fish and I like them a lot. Whatever ther genes might be they are nice pets.
Martin.
:)