Help To Id Fish (loach)

[mikev]

Sorry, no pic, but I can probably describe it fairly well.

A LFS has five 3" loaches labelled "Horse-Faced Loach". Three of them are indeed Acatopsis choirorhynchus, as shown below but a bit darker:

The other two, however, are most certainly something else, even if they have nearly identical color and markings.

The differences are:

1. The face is not elongated, but rounded, resembling that of a khuli.
2. Large barbels.
3. The tail is neither split like most loaches, nor flat (like khulis), but rounded out.
4. I *think* the body is as flexible as that of a khuli (the body proportions are that of a khuli).

Any idea what these might be?

I suspect these are dojos (cannot be sure - never saw a live dojo) or close relatives but the images on loaches.com do not include anything with the right colors/markings (which are like in the above horse-faced). Perhaps someone who has a dojo could comment on the shape of their tails?

If these are dojo's indeed, does anyone know if they are compatible with khulis? (I'm very tempted ) )

TIA

 

[The-Wolf]

sounds like a Cobitis species
here is a list of them
Graceful Loach Cobitis choii
Northern Loach Cobitis granoei
Korean Loach Cobitis koreensis koreensis
Sandy Korean Loach Cobitis koreenis pumilis
no comon name Cobitis longica
Speckled Loach Cobitis lutheri
Round-tail Loach Cobitis rotundicaudata
Striped Loach Cobitis striata
no common name Cobitis taenia taenia

HTH

 

[Barracuda518]

Any idea what these might be?

Perhaps someone who has a dojo could comment on the shape of their tails?

Its definately not a Dojo Loach. I have seen the loach in that picture in the LFS many times and its always labeled as a Horse Face Loach like you said. Check out some of those The Wolf listed and I bet you will find out which one it is

 

[mikev]

Thanks, Wolf, and my apologies: should have never tried to ask the question without posting the images.

I'm doubtful about Cobitis: most of the images show an elongated face, and this loach' face is rounded.

Here are a couple...maybe they look familiar...

Larger image link

Larger image link

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

They look like dojo's to me have alook here http/www.loaches.com/species_pages/wloach.html for a better id.

Emma

 

[mikev]

Hi,

They look like dojo's to me have alook here http/www.loaches.com/species_pages/wloach.html for a better id.

Emma

TY! I did look, the color/pattern does not seem to be the same. Body shape does match well.

(I went to LFS just now to get them---whatever they are, they did look intensely cute&ugly ---and unf. it seems that one of them is not doing too well....Looks like the same kind of disease that kills khulis after transportation. Will recheck on them on Monday...)

 

[sylvia]

I haven't looked too closely at your pics but they do look like weather loaches. Anyway, just wanted to warn you that they can, potentialy, grow quite large so make sure your tank is large enough for them.

 

[The-Wolf]

having seen the pics
I concur they are dojo/weather loaches.

 

[Barracuda518]

I mis-read that post. I thought you were asking what kind of loach that was in the first picture

 

[mikev]

Thank you all,

I mis-read that post. I thought you were asking what kind of loach that was in the first picture

The fault is mine; will never post an ID? without a picture again.

Anyway, just wanted to warn you that they can, potentialy, grow quite large so make sure your tank is large enough for them.

OMG..24cm....Thank you very much for the warning; this probably kills the idea for now...OK, dojos are now officially my "dream fish".

 

[mikev]

Uggh, I should not be doing this....

I went back to look at the dojos again and surprisingly, the "sick" one is still alive...

The problem with it is that it cannot stay on his stomach, it ends up on its side, or even upside down. Usually, this would be death warrant (khulis with this type of problem die withing hours), but it survived for a week in this state in the store. I looked at it very carefully today, and could not detect any other signs of disease/infections, but noticed that its fins are very small (half the size of the other dogo and while not damaged, appear very weak)... It runs/hides just fine, but then lies on its back...

How would you try to determine if this is a disease or a birth defect/old trauma?

If it is a disease, I'm not touching it (moving/acclimating would probably kill it)...if it is just a defect,...(I know I should not even think this...but I do feel sorry for it. And maybe it will recover with adequate feed yet.)

This poor fellow has no chance of survival at the store (these guys recently dumped a large tank with all fish just because of an ich infection, and I think they will dump him too before long...)

(yeah, I do have space, it just means I would not get some other fish...)

 

[mikev]

The end of the story (and my interest in dojo's for now):

I asked the owner of the best lfs around here about dojo's (the guy generally knows his fish) and got the following, unexpected, answer: if you want dojo's, the easiest way to get them is in Chinese supermarket,.. a few dollars per pound (live).

This is what he did exactly: bought a few (obviously, fully grown) and dumped them into his home 55g tank. Three things happened:
Firstly, they buried themselves into the substrate -- ok so far.
Secondly, they started spawning -- he was pretty sure, this is what they did, possibly because of the drastically improved conditions....
Thirdly, they started exterminating all the other fish he had.

Anyway, the loaches ended up cooked the same day...he said he had no other option...