Loaches Online Forum

Can someone please tell me what these guys are? They were sold as "ring loaches" which of course is not a 'common' common name, so I can't apply a scientific name to it. I have Dr. A.'s encyclopedia of freshwater Aquarium fishes, and the only guess I can venture is Noemacheilus barbatulus, but I'm not sure. Sorry about the quality of these photos; these fish are pretty tiny. (You can see one next to the UG uplift tube in one photo.)

BTW, I am new here, I could not find a way to attatch pics here, or to post them on the site. Perhaps I just didn't see it. If I have faux pas'ed, please forgive me. The pics are here:






Any help you can offer is most appreciated!

Hi and welcome!

If you go onto a photobucket.com (Or similar) and upload you photos onto thre you can then copy the url onto here and the experts should be able to ID him for you!

EDIT, posted that at the same time as you added the photos.

Yeah I figured; you had me confused for a second.

They look like the Schistura beavani.

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/schistura-beavani

That's what i thought but they seem a little bit more yellow than the ones on the index?

Yeah, Daspricey. I would say it's just the quality of the images and the camera flash. (no offense neonoah75)

Once these little chaps settle with plenty shelters around them, they soon change colour and become darker.

They also really enjoy burrowing in sand, so it would be better to house them in a tank with this type of substrate (which isn't possible with UG filtration, obviously). When relaxed, they will often sit beneath the sand with just their heads poking out.



Emma

One of my old-timers letting me know he's still around before he zooms off into the pebbles.

neonoah75, I added img tags to your post so's we can see the pics. Simply highlight the URL and then click on the img button above the post composition window. This wraps the URL in (URL fits between the pairs of brackets) and the image appears in-post.

Martin.

Thank you, Martin.

And thanks for the help, everyone!

No offense taken, Graeme. That yellow is just because of the low quality of the pics (time for a new camera!) They are white with dark stripes.

The S.Beavani's are a really good looking fish , they have that nice dainty look !

They are one of my favorite small schisturas. I have a pair I have had for about 7 years now.

Jim Powers wrote:They are one of my favorite small schisturas. I have a pair I have had for about 7 years now.

Mine are around 6yrs. One thing with this loach is that they live life slowly...never zooming around, just looking at others.

Yes, they do seem to live life slowly in my tank, also...except at feeding time! Then they zoom across the bottom until the food all settles.

One question I have though; Why is this scientific name not in Dr. Axelrod's atlas? It is the latest tome. I realize that fish taxonomy is very fickle and convoluted at the best of times. However, can someone please tell me what scientific name this loach was previously known as? If this is the originally described name, How would Dr. A. miss it? (If you have seen the book, you would ask the same; It has a HUUGGE cross-section of fish. No descriptions; just pics for ID purposes. Since these schisturas seem to be common enough in the hobby, it seems like they would have been I.D.ed in this most difinitive work.)

Anyway, I eagerly await any replies! Thanks again.

Look here.

http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/Nomenclat ... me=beavani

http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/summary/S ... p?id=24539

Do not expect the "tome" to be 100%. A lot of TFH's stock photos are suspect in ID. There have been some inroads made in that respect re: loach ID in particular due to our involvement with them during the publishing of "Loaches". It is highly possible that we may be contacted in a consultative mode for further publications.

Martin.