This species is among the most frequently-misidentified in the hobby, almost always being traded as P. kuhlii. However the latter is currently considered endemic to Java, from where commercial collections are almost unheard of, and has possibly never been seen in aquaria.

Among them it’s most similar to I. longicorpus and I. hugowolfeldi but can be distinguished by the following combination of characters: body patterning consisting of 9-13 dark vertical bars along the flanks plus a small dark spot at the base of the upper caudal-fin lobe; no black blotch or markings posterior to the operculum; reduced lamina circularis in males; interorbital width measures 14.7-17.8% o…

It appears that I. hugowolfeldi, I. longicorpus and I. yongdokensis form a biogeographic lineage distinct from I. koreensis and I. pumila, with the former group distributed to the south of the Taebaek and Noryeong moutnain ranges and the latter to the west. This is further evidenced by the fact that the lamina circularis in males of the southern gro…

The fish in our images above were imported together don’t correspond to any of the described species of Pangio though they can be assigned to the P. kuhlii species group with a degree of certainty. Unfortunately the live appearance of P. kuhlii itself is a mystery to aquarists since it’s currently considered endemic to Java and may have never been seen in the hobby.

All Iksookimia species are endemic to Korea, and I. pumila is known only from the Baek River drainage in south-western Korea where its presence has been undermined at some localities due to construction of a dam in the middle reaches of the river during the late 1990s. Type locality is ‘Paikchon stream at Sangso-myon, Puan-gun, Chollabuk-do, South Korea’.

The reservoir formed by the dam has also be…

Known only from a single cave system (Tham Sai Yok Noi) near the town of Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi, Sai Yok district, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. The headwater stream running through the cave is part of the Khwae Noi river basin, itself a tributary of the upper Mae Klong system.

621 metres of the cave system has repor…

This species was originally named Nemacheilus masyae but following ICZN rules the spelling was later corrected to N. masyai because it’s named after a man. It can be distinguished from the majority of congeners by body patterning comprising 14-18 short, dark vertical bars on each flank, 12-17 saddle-like markings running along the dorsal surface, a dark spot on the caudal peduncle at the termination of the lateral line and a dark blotch in the lower half of the first few dorsal-fin rays.

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…

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.