Loaches Online Forum

Hi

I bought this fish a few years ago, it should be a botia dario. But it doesn't look like the other ones.





Is this a botia dario or something else?

Melina

Looks like a adult Botia rostrata.

Nice specimen!

that is what i thought too. they are nice fish

Cool then I have a Rostrata. But aren't his markings different from other Rostrata's?

i bought one of mine as a yoyo with slightly different markings, and then its markings changed as it grew. rostrata seem to have quite variable patterns. they can look a bit like histrionica and kubotai as well as dario.

Thanks for the info.

Yesterday I saw small kubotai's in a shop. But at first I really thought they were little histronica. Do they also look a lot like eachother when they're little? Sorry for the questions but I'm just getting to now all different kinds of loaches. I only knew the ones I had before I got to know this website.

Melina have you looked at the species index on this site? There are some good pics there of different botias in different stages of development. I'm a newbie too and I find it very difficult to see distinct differences. Especially between histrionica and kubotai.

yes I did. But then when I think I know the different kinds (at least the ones I like), I see pics or loaches in shops and I can't recognise them. Like with my rostrata.

I've noticed that not all Rostrata's have this busy pattern , i wonder if it is a male trait Mark [duff] shows a couple of his fish with this pattern also , out of my group one or two are getting this too, they are also darker in colour , and slimmer , wheras the others that seem to keep the twin bar look , are plumper