One of a handful of Pangio spp. traded under the generic name ‘eel loach’. Wild populations tend to differ in colour pattern to some extent, with some exhibiting a more intense lateral stripe while others display an irregular pattern of fine dark spots on the body, for example.

Infrequently encountered in the aquarium trade, most often as bycatch among shipments of similar-looking congeners. It’s included in the P. kuhlii group of closely-related species within the genus, and can be distinguished from other members by…

The genus Kottelatlimia was erected by Nalbant (1994) to accommodate K. katik which had previously been assigned to Lepidocephalichthys but differs in various aspects noted earlier by Kottelat and Lim (1992) including: relatively small adult size; scaleless…

Juveniles of this 'species' (probably a group of species – see 'distribution') are traded in large numbers but it's still uncommon to see adult specimens in the hobby suggesting their needs are not catered for often enough. This is a shame as when maintained properly they're hardy, long-lived and interesting aquarium residents. Other trade names include 'long-nosed' and 'banana' loach. Please note although certain that more than one species is being tr…

It can be distinguished from congeners by the following combination of characters: 61-68 scales in the lateral series; a small, well-defined, sometimes ocellated black spot on the shoulder and another in the centre of the caudal peduncle; body without longitudinal stripes formed by spots on scales; caudal fin uniformly dusky or colourless, lobes without stripes or black margins.

In the aquarium trade this species may also be seen on sale as ‘skinhead barb’. As with others in the genus little has been written regarding its captive care but it makes a peaceful and unusual addition to larger aquaria. The best way of obtaining it may be to keep an eye on shipments of wild fishes from Indochina and the Greater Sunda Islands as it’s rarely imported in large numbers and most often arrives as bycatch.

This species was described from ‘Johore River, Segamat, Malaysia’, which corresponds to Segamat District within the the Johor River watershed, Johor state, southern Peninsular Malaysia, but the type specimens were obtained via a Singapore wholesaler so it’s possible that a mistake was made as there exist no other records of the species in Peninsular Malaysia.

It’s also been recorded from the Kapuas drainage…

It should be noted that not all authors consider the B. pugnax group to contain the same species, with some placed in the B. picta complex by Schindler and Schmidt (2006), for example.

B. raja can be told apart from other members of the B. pugnax group by the following characters: mature males with very long pelvic fins covering 15-23 anal-fin rays or even longer than the base of the anal-fin in some cases; anal-fin and lower caudal-fin with black marginal bands; 25-28 anal-fin rays; 30-32 lat…

T. hengeli is sometimes seen for sale with the trade name of ‘glowlight rasbora’ due to the distinctive orange patterning on the posterior part of the body but we’ve refrained from using that name here because it’s also commonly applied to Trigonopoma pauciperforatum.

It can be confused with the similar-looking T. heteromorpha and T. espei although on close inspection they’re actually quite easy to tell…

An ideal resident of the larger, well-furnished community set-up though it might upset slow-moving or timid companions simply by its size.

There are plenty of suitable tankmates including many cyprinids, loaches, cichlids, catfish and characins, but as always when selecting a compatible community of fish proper research is essential. A community based around one of its native countries or river basins…