Loaches Online Forum

I was due to receive 2 new loach species yesterday, but one of the two types I was invoiced for was not in the box at all (very disappointing), and the other was actually something else.

I took some photographs of this new species whilst we were acclimatising them yesterday evening. The pictures are terrible because they were taken in the dark and I couldn't get the camera to focus, but I thought they were probably worth posting until I get a chance to take some more (decent) pics of them once settled. They are clearly some type(s) of hillstream loach and you can see some of them clinging upside down to the almond leaves in the shipping bag. The supplier these came from specialises in Indonesian fish, but that is all I know (and likely to be able to find out I think! ). What I noticed straight away is that the heads of these fish are extremely rounded/broad:











Probably the best pic of the lot....


I know they are thin, but we will fatten them up.
Any ideas?

Emma

Very interesting, Emma. Those look like you took characteristics from several hillstream species, threw them together, and put in a dash of schistura.

Better save some for Graeme.

Oh! Very nice!!

They look like the Homaloptera gymnogaster. I wants!!

I see what you mean. Yes I think that could be them! Will try for some better pics over the next couple of days.

Emma

I was looking through here at body shapes.......

http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/identifica ... &areacode=

I did a search on Fishbase of all Indonesian freshwater fish......generally, i come down on the side of a Homaloptera or that with one of the prefixes to the name.

Here's Heok Hee's dark, dark picture from that old profile (if you can call it that) with the lights on for some clarification....



Looks possible....or a related species. Your species seem to have a lower Dorsal ray count.

PD nice, whatever.
Martin.

That does look like Hoek Hee's pic.
What seems odd to me, though, is that these fish (both Emma's and Hoek Hee's) seem to have a Chinese hillstream look to them with the head shape and barbels. They almost look Crossostoma-like in that regard. But, there is a range in appearance within homaloptara. Just compare smithi to orthogoniata.
Cool looking fish, regardless.
I knew you would want some, Graeme.