Help me ID my pleco/loach, please!

[TorPeteO]

Hey everyone,

I bought a new fish today, known at the LFS as a "Hong Kong Pleco." The guy who worked there said that it was actually a species of loach, but it looked a lot like a pleco so that's where the common name came from. Has anyone heard of this species by their common name?

I've got a rather poor picture on my website, but it doesn't do the fish any justice. It's brown, with darker brown (kind of large) spots. It's got round fins, and there's a red line down the top of its dorsal fin.

The closest fish I could find online was this guy, but that species gets to 14 cm, which is way larger than the one I have would get to.

I don't even think it's an HK loach...this website has what they call a hong kong pleco, and it doesn't look like mine.

Any help anyone could give you be AMAZING! Thanks a lot!

 

[TorPeteO]

Did some more research, and it kind of looks like Pseudogastromyson cheni. Anyone have any other ideas, or confirmation of that? Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Gix]

That's a hillstream loach. I don't know much about them, so I couldn't tell you if it's a specific kind, but that's definitely what it is. It's not a pleco.

They like a strong current, as they live in fast-moving streams.

http/loaches.com/species_pages/beauforti...ichowensis.html
that page has some pictures of them

http/www.bobd.lunarpages.com/loaches/galleries.html
there's some more. a lot more.

http/loaches.com/hillstream_intro.html
That site should give you plenty of information regarding your loach. I can't help you much myself, but good luck with the little guy!

 

[Gix]

I've been looking around the forums, and I've noticed that there are two or three other threads about hillstram loaches (in both cases the owner didn't know what they were) in the cyprinids & characins section. You might want to check those out too.