This species is only traded occasionally. It’s distinguished from congeners by a combination of characters including: 12-16 dark, irregular, vertical bars on body, usually split vertically; lips without furrows; inco…

It’s a member of the N. selangoricus group of species within the genus, an assemblage first recognised by Hadiaty and Kottelat (2009) and characterised by possession of two rows of horizontally-arran…

The similar-looking N. masyai is sometimes traded as N. pallidus, but the two can be told apart by body depth (14.8-19.1 % in N. pallidus vs. 12.6-17.6 % SL in N. masyai), interorbital width (5.7-8.0 % vs. 4.9-6.8 % SL) and the fact that in N. pallidus the dark body bars and saddles are thinner than the light-coloured interspaces between (vs. wider in N. masyai).

Images depict clear, tea-coloured forest streams with dense marginal vegetation and substrates of sand and/or small rocks and pebbles. It’s also known from environments with sandy substrate and organic debris in the form of submerged roots/branches and le…

This species is distinguished from similar-looking congeners such as N. longistriatus and N. ornatus by its unique colour pattern consisting of a black lateral body stripe with 9-16 vertically-orientated blotches extending along it both above and below, plus an irregular stripe running along the dorsal surface. The anterior lateral blotch is surrounded by lighter pigment, forming an ocellus similar to that seen in N. binotatus.

N. binotatus is distinguished from similar-looking congeners such as N. longistriatus and N. ornatus by its unique body patterning consisting very simply of two dark stripes, one running along the dorsal surface and the other from the tip of the snout, through the eye and along the flank.

There are usually 1-3 small, vertically-orientated spots extending above the lateral stripe between the pectoral-fin and dorsal fins. These are su…

Fishes which inhabit similar biotopes in nature constitute the best options, especially peaceful, open water-dwelling cyprinids since the presence of one or two schools can make a visible difference to the confidence of this naturally reclusive loach.

Other possibilities include rheoph…

This species is frequently misidentified as Nemachilichthys rueppelli (Sykes, 1839) but that species was described from close to Pune in Maharashtra state, well over 500 km north of Shimoga. Further, in his description of N. rueppeli Sykes states that the body colour is ‘greenish yellow’ and ‘the lateral line marked with short dark bars’.

Narayan Rao described the colour pattern of…

Not a commonly species in the aquarium hobby but sporadically available in shipments of wild fishes from Thailand.

Following Kottelat (1990) it’s a member of a group of species possessing a complete or near-complete lateral line, 8 ½ branched dorsal-fin rays, 17 branched caudal-fin rays and lacking sexual dimorphism (the latter is not strictly true – see above).

Its colour pattern is quite distinctive, howe…

This species is traded on a fairly regular basis and is similar in appearance to some congeners, most notably S. bella, S. mahnerti, S. multifasciata, S. poculi, S. reticulata, S. longa, S. conirostris and S. udomritthiruji.

This assemblage has been referred to as the Schistura multifasciata ‘group’, and members share a…