Common spiny Loach

[Graeme Robson]

Known in India and Sri Lanka with this name. Here's one of my Lepidocephalus thermalis.

[loachmom]

Looks 'uncommonly' pretty to me.
Nice photo!

[Martin Thoene]

Uncommonly terrible pictures. Use more super-glue.

(only joking)

Beautiful pics.

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

Yeah they definitely deserve a better 'common name'.
Lovely shots Graeme.

Emma

[Graeme Robson]

Thanks all. This was one of those lucky shots. I only managed to capture one image but it turned out okay.

[Jim Powers]

That's a beautiful specimen.

[sanjeev]

I caught these from a river close to home once. They like real fine sandy substrate and fast flowing water.

[piggy4]

Great pic Graeme , beautifully conditioned fish , nice incite also Sanjeev, any chance of a bit more info, i.e. temperature, and if possible ,other fishes observed at the site , thanks .
Andy.

[Mad Duff]

Lovely fih Graeme

[Graeme Robson]

Thanks ya all

[sanjeev]

The river has several species of barbs . In fact I was out there to catch Filament barb(Puntius filamentosusassimillis). There were little streams running along the sides of the rivers and as I was walking, I noticed little coulds of sand being kicked up in the water. These guys were partially burried in the sand and very well camouflaged. I wouldnt have even seen them if they haden't moved. I'm not sure about the temperature but i think it should be around 15 C - 18 C. I'm planning to go down there after the monsoons are over.

[Graeme Robson]

This below is a common sight i see with many of my Lepidocephalichthys, Lepidocephalus species. I would imagine this is what sanjeev is seeing from a distance. Interesting fellow specimens and temperature in the waters. Any other loaches apart from the Lepidocephalus's?

Post some pictures if you can sanjeev!

[piggy4]

A big thanks Sanjeev, its always nice to hear off somebody who is in the field ! when you go there again please give us a report , just curious but when you return ,do you expect to see the same fishes or is there a chance you might come across a few different ones ?
Superb pic of a fish doing what comes naturally, well done Graeme.

[sanjeev]

Yep.. thats right Graeme, thats how they hide. Sometimes they are completely covered except for the eyes(I guess that might be from the sand thats being washed over them when they're in the river). I was never able to find the bigger ones. The ones that I caught were about 2" - 2.5". The biggest one is now about 3.5 inches.

The water level at the spot where i caught them was about a foot deep. I'll try to get pics of them when go back to my hometown. Thats where I have the pond.

There are a lot of other varieties of loaches here too. In fact when i used to purchase fish for the pond, my dad used to say that there used to be a lot of fish in kerala back in the early 1950's that resembled Yo-Yos and Zebras in terms of shape and behaviour. But now it seems many of them are not even seen anymore.

Kerala itself houses about 350 different species of freshwater fish. And I've read about sevaral varieties of loaches at the university a long time back. I don't remember the scientific names though. Maybe when I take the next long break from work, I'll try to travel around kerala on a loach expedition.

[Graeme Robson]

Sounds good!

Interesting reports regarding the Yoyo-cross.