I have had this VERY shy loach for a couple of months and am trying to identify it any ideas??



Will try and get a clearer photo if poss but its very shy

Looks like a blue botia to me;

http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_modesta.html

quote from site:

"We made a mistake by thinking that they behave in the same friendly manner as clown loaches and put two orange-finned loaches together with 60 neons and others in a 100 liter tank. After coming back from a one-week vacation, only 7 neons are left and no remains of the others are even noticeable. What happened was that the orange-finned loaches came out from hiding during the night and snatched up the neons for meals. Now we returned the two orange-finned loaches to the seller and replaced them by clown loaches. Peace and order are apparently restored."

I can't see the picture, but Botias generally are gregarious and do better in groups. Many are at least partially nocturnal. If you do have Botia modesta, it can be a very aggressive fish.

Fish Index article.

Hi,

It looks like a tiger loach as modestas don't have stripes http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_hymenophysa.html they are said to be one of the more aggressive loaches.

Emma

WELL BY THE SOUND OF IT i am getting closer to finding out what it is, he seems very peaceful though we don't see alot of him If he is shoved out of his hidey hole he trys to get under the plec

I don't think it has stripes, this looks like an image deficiency...

Almost certainly, it is a modesta, but either way it is a potentially agressive loach.

We made a mistake by thinking that they behave in the same friendly manner as clown loaches....

Actually, even clown loaches can get unfriendly. There is a famous story about clowns feasting on Great Danios before spawing, and still very small and friendly clowns in my tank offed a barb.

This post has been edited by mikev: Jan 17 2006, 01:11 AM

I sure you have a Botia hymenophysa Banded loach.

I can see the picture now, and it does seem to have stripes, although the picture is not the best. Perhaps the OP can tell us. I am also inclined to thinking it is Botia hymenophysa which regales under a whole host of common names, Green Tiger Loach is what they are sold as here. An aggressive mostly nocturnal species.

here is a pic of my B.hymenophysa for comparrison



This post has been edited by The-Wolf: Jan 17 2006, 06:09 PM

That picture looks more like B. berdmorei or B. beauforti. B. hymenophysa does not usually exhibit the very obvious spots shown on that fish.

More recently, hymenophysa has been assigned to the genus Syncrossus, along with beauforti, berdmorei, helodes and reversa.

will try to get a better clearer picture, we have never had a fish like this before and I have enjoyed looking at all the links people have put up for and learn't loads thanks very much everyone

Looks like a botia modesta; looks like yours might be dyed blue or maybe it's the pic. I used to keep a loach tank and had a group of those. Very terratorial; my friend now has them in his huge tank with big cichlids. I forget which kind.