Loaches Online Forum

I'm confused about this and would like to hear from some of you that are keeping these first hand. The profile says 8 in/20cm, but reading further in the linked article it says 10 cm, half that. My LFS has some and they're beautiful but I didn't want to deal with 8 inch adults in my 75. Thanks in advance for your input.

you and me both mate, i saw the 8 inches and thought no way.
i reckon a realistic max size would be 5-6 inches TL and thats going some to get one to that size, they are very slow growing compared to other botia.

mick

Again, I'm sure this size will have originally come from Fishbase. Personally I don't think it is accurate, and I'd say 5" max would be typical. Yet the size on FB is followed by a reference number so there must be records of this somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me if the specimen in question was actually a misidentified B. almorhae.

Emma

Thanks Mick. That makes them similar to Kubotai and histrionica in size then? I'm always trying to pass along info about loaches to my LFS for the sake of the fish. They usually just ignore me but when I saw them labeled as "dwarf", and the profile said 8 in, I told them again and sure enough the gal wrote 8 inches right on the tank. I'll have to correct that.

mine seem to be quite slow growing. sometimes you have to wonder how much of the info in fishbase gets checked.

I think even 5 inches is too big. I would say 4 inches at the absolute maximum.

Mike

Good to hear Mike O. No room for 8 in fish but 4inch...maybe. Lets nag Ned...

This 8" reference definitely needs looking into further. There seems to be such a discrepancy in sizes. In the Ornamental Aquarium Fish of India book they are listed as only attaining 4cm, which also is clearly inaccurate and right at the other end of the scale.

Emma

could they have meant 4" not 4cm? my babies are bigger than 4cm SL.

helen nightingale wrote:could they have meant 4" not 4cm?

The pic on page 97 definitely shows a juvenile, and they recommend them for small tanks, rather than say a medium sized tank for the B. dario. I know the book is 9 years old now and a lot more info is now available, so I think I'll email Andrew (one of the authors and a friend) and ask him about this.

Emma

Thanks all for your input!

I've emailed Andrew in India, will let you know what he says!

Emma

I think Rostrata's are hard fish to grow on really , a few years ago i managed to grow a group of 6 fish to about 4 inches standard length , the ones i currantly own are slow growing , but I'll keep trying !