Help Identifying Loach Please

[ou7shined]

To cut a long story short I ended up with one of a pair of yo-yo loaches that a mate was splitting up. Only by the time it gets to my house it's not a yo-yo anymore. When he bought it, 6 months ago, the guy in the shop said it was a yo-yo but then it grew and grew. A minor detail that my mate omitted before bringing it to me.

Ok, it's 15-16cm long and relatively chunky, is fairly bland colour wise with an occasional black/dark tip to the dorsal and thin blue/green vertical stripes along its sides. It is quite shy and clicks loudly (compared to my quieter skunk loach) when harassed. I've looked all over the web but can't match it to any pics.
Here are the best pics I can get of the shy guy. The photos are taken with my camera phone which explains the yellowish hue.

pic1
pic2
pic3

Although it's bigger than I'd expected, it does seem to be settling in and my 8yo red tailed shark has fallen in love, so I might end up keeping it......provided its not a killer.

 

[The-Wolf]

possibly one of the Tiger loach group
hard to say from the pics but I'd go with Botia hymenophysa

 

[mikev]

possibly one of the Tiger loach group
hard to say from the pics but I'd go with Botia hymenophysa

Body shape does look like a tiger, but the colors are quite strange. Maybe worthwhile asking on LOL.

BTW -- OFT -- did you see the picture of the loach species intermediate between Kubotai and Yoyo? Cute thing that clearly shows that there are more species out there.

 

[Lateral Line]

Botia hymenophysa would be my guess too. The odd colour may be a photo effect, they are difficult to photograph out of a show tank.

 

[ou7shined]

Hmmm as I feared, a tiger. Although the Botia hymenophysa does come extremely close with body shape and the black dot on the dorsal, my fish lacks the prominent coloured stripes (it's not a photo effect, they just aren't there) and the stripes are vertical and not tilting away from the head. I guess there's a possibility that the stripes might dissipate with age and could explain why, when juvenile, it was mistaken for a yo-yo (if you're a complete dumb-ass ).

In my quest to identify this fish I too thought it came close to tigers and read that they tend to be killers and will kill all but the fish bigger than themselves. I have a 6cm Botia striata in this tank, who seems a bit phased by the new arrival. The only other small fish are a skunk loach and a pair of home grown Julie cichlids but these guys should be able to take care of themselves. Have you guys experience of the tigers psychotic behaviour?

 

[ou7shined]

Any more ideas? It is very close to a tiger but not quite.

 

[Barracuda518]

Any more ideas? It is very close to a tiger but not quite.

I thought the same thing when I saw the pictures too. Is there anyway you could get some more clearer pictures of the loach?