Loaches Online Forum

I met up with Graeme yesterday and had a look in a shop that I haven't actually visited for a couple of years.

We both saw a very unusually patterned Botia Striata, the biggest majority of the bands didn't travel more than half way down the side of the fish which left large silvery areas of belly and flanks. Anyway I bought it and at £2.50 wasn't a bad price, when it was floating in its bag it had exactly the same markings but when I opened the bag and added a couple of cup fulls of tank water to the bag the pattern that was missing started to appear and the unusually patterned Striata now looks normal.


If you look at the photo and image no markings below the lateral line that is what it looked like in the shop, I can only think that it was something to do with the water in the shop or stress, once I had added my tank water I couldn't check the ph so it could have been that or it could have been stressed because it was the only one in the tank .

I also picked up this one

you got me going for a minute then.i know what your luck is like. although its a lovely fish, it must have been dissapointing when it changed.

what a good example of how important water parameters are.

I was a little disappointed when the normal pattern appeared but its still a nice addition to my shoal of Striata.

Its a little rough but this is something like what it looked like when I first got it home:

If it had stayed like this it would have been very nice but it wasn't to be

Good finds. Pretty fish. I am sure that in your care stress will no longer be an issue. Good fortune smiled down on those loaches.

The Striata looks really good. The Kubotai (I presume) needs fattening.

i have seen a few striata a bit like your adapted photo, but the stripes sort of finished in a curve. they were sweet.

its better to have a happy fish than an unusual marked one

Nice. A "half-stripe" would have been cool from an odd-ball type of view, but the normal ones are so beautifully marked anyway that who really needs weird ones

This one has some interesting detail though. Note the central doesal stripe where the two thin lines within the dark stripe cross one another.

Martin.

and note the interesting markings on the top of the fish in front of the dorsal fin. there are some interesting wiggles up there.

i love striata as they are all different, but often very obviously the same, unlike kubotai/rostrata/yoyos etc, which can all get confusing with strange markings and marking changes

It certainly does have some interesting markings on it, this is a photo of the other side of the fish, it has saome interesting markings around the dorsal area and around the caudal area:


Here are a couple of other photos of some of my other Striata's




Note the spots on the head of the front fish in the last photo, they have only appeared in the last couple of weeks.

He still has a few interesting markings on him, Mark.

Nothing like Mr squiggly in the last picture though.

Great pics as usual! I like the second to last one where you have captured the front B. striata 'yawning'.

Emma

Lovely pictures and beautiful striatas!!

I think I need someone with a decent camera to come and take some photos of mine for me

Also, I love your pot towers and was going to try and copy the ideabut just can't seem to find any pots of a suitable shape anywhere around here....so I shall be keping an eye out!