Loaches Online Forum

A local petshop just got a tank full of what they are calling weather loaches. Not really happy with the owner at the moment, he is keeping them in a 15 gallon in the tropical section probally has 20+ fish and most are around 4-5 inches.
I want to know if these fish that fall into the weather loach catagory have meny diffrent color morphs to me it looks like there is about 6 or are they all diffrent species. There is 2 that are verry similar to Misgurnus mizolepis but they are all gold and mostly iridescent. I am sure the other species of weather loach is there too, But how meny? Thanks.

not to worry you or anything:

http://tinyurl.com/2q7c23

if they're all in the same tank and the same size, I'm betting that they're farmed m. anguillicaudatus, which comes in a variety of patterns & colours. You'll need to be looking at head-shape and barbels - and fins - rather than colour. I don't think the mizolepis and anguillicaudatus come from the same place, so they won't be likely to have come in together.

it's a guess rather than a certainty, though.

Thank you for the link, I was unaware there was that number of sub species. And I think good number have diffrent head shapes. I used to work at this store I know he mostly deals with farms so any combonation is a possibility. He has a few he ussually deals with from florida and a couple from Asia.

Want to get confused? Work your way through these pages:

http://fishpix.kahaku.go.jp/fishimage/s ... =Cobitidae

Martin.

I don't know about anyone else, but I sure am confused!!

ow.
thanks, Martin.

LOL sorry Jim is it my punctuation again? Or jsut how wlle I tpye. (sory had to).


Martin: that link looked much like the tank I was looking at, some looked like color morphs others didn't but I went to the index and found only the couple in the family. Thats when I got real confused but it all make sense to me now. There is just to darn meny undiscribed. Is there a extrodinarily rare type I should check for?
Thank you to you all.