Known from the middle and lower Mekong basins in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, plus the Dong Nai drainage in central Vietnam.

Type locality is ‘Rapids of Dang-nai, Bien Hoa Province, Thailand’, which corresponds to what is now the city of Biên Hòa in Đồng Nai province, southern Vietnam.

This species is migratory on a seasonal basis; during the dry season it can be found in larger river channels, whereas during drier months it moves into smaller tributaries and flooded forests.

Apparently displays a preference for rocky habitats and is not known to adapt to reservoirs or other artificial impoundments.

The type locality consisted of remnant ephemeral pools in otherwise dry agricultural land, and many adults were collected from such habitats.

Other species present included the congener L. hasselti plus members of Anabas, ‘Puntius‘, Rasbora, Channa, and Hampala.

Inhabits well-oxygenated, low-to-medium gradient, slow to moderate-flowing rivers and streams with substrates of gravel, cobbles, larger boulders and exposed bedrock. At the habitat in our image pH was 7.5, temperature 26°C and cond…

B. aurotaeniatus is uncommon in the aquarium trade. Following Kottelat (1998) it has a single pair of maxillary barbels, a complete lateral line and colour pattern usually comprising four small, vertically-orientated black markings on the flanks (located above anterior lateral line origin, below dorsal-fin origin, below posterior end of dorsal-fin base and on caudal peduncle, respectively) and one on the dorsal surface, below dorsal-fin origin.

The vernacular name ‘lancer’ is derived from the extended dorsal spine possessed by several members of the genus, which currently contains 7 species. B. obscurus is diagnosable from congerners by the following combination of characters: mouth opening relatively small and narrow; oral dentition significantly reduced; dorsal-fin spi…

This species is among the smaller members of the family. It can be differentiated from all other Akysis species by the following combination of characters: caudal peduncle length 16.1-19.8% of standard length (SL); caudal peduncle depth 6.5-9.3% SL; length of adipose-fin base 25.6-29.5% SL; interorbital distance 42.0-46.0% of head length (HL), eye diameter 13.0-20.0% HL; length of nasal barbel 44.0-66.0% HL; lateral margins of the head appear straight when viewed from above; possession of 0-5 se…

The family Cobitidae, often referred to as ‘true’ loaches, is widely-distributed across most of Eurasia with the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and China representing particular centres of species diversity.

Phylogenetic analyses by Tang et al. (2006), Šlechtová et al. (2007) and Šlechtová et a…

Predominantly a riverine fish favouring clear, well-oxygenated, running water with substrates of sand or gravel and often present in rock and boulder-filled headwater streams.

In the Mun River, close to the Pak Mun dam, Thailand, sympatric species included Hampala dispar, Cyclocheilichthys apogon, Osteochilus hasseltii,…

This species does not appear to be in the aquarium hobby at time of writing though it may have been in the past, when exports of wild Epalzeorhynchos spp. still took place.

Most members of the genus were formerly regarded as Labeo spp. and are thus referred to as such in older literature. According to Rainboth (1996) they’re characterised by absence of a dorsal spine, possession of 10-13 branched dorsal fin rays, a thin membrane…