Breeding Skunk Loach (Yasuhikotakia Morleti) In The Aquarium

Location

This freshwater species lives in rivers, creeks, river basins or standing waters with rocks and stones in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

Body description

Colour of the body is pink-beige. There is a dark, horizontal stripe on the back. This stripe intersecting the dorsal fin and goes along the base of the caudal fin. The dorsal and caudal fins are slightly yellow. There are small and dark dots on the dorsal fin. The bottom fins are orange. You can recognize the sex of the fish when they are sexually matured. Female is thicker in ventral parts.

Temperament and behaviour

Fish doesn’t have scales and because of that it is more exposed to parasites, protozoas, chemicals, and drugs added to water. This species usually swims at the bottom part of water level. It is not very aggressive (it chases and nibbles smaller fish), so you should keep it in a single species aquarium or in a large group in a general tank (with a fast swimming and not very aggressive fish which spend most time in the medium and upper water level). Males are territorial and they form type of hierarchy. This species usually hides in the day. It is more active in the evening or at night. It can eat snails. Sick fish can be recognized by the skinny look of the body - you can see sunken stomach, outline of the bones (spine and skull).

Aquarium decoration

This fish likes spacious tanks with soft substrate (fish often dig in the substrate – they build dens), dimmed light, many places to hide among stones, rocks, plants (floating plants are necessary too). The partial water changes should be done regular (this species is sensitive to nitrates and excess of dissolved organic compounds) and water should be rich in oxygen.

Breeding

This is an oviparous species but it will spawn occasionally in artificial conditions. This fish mostly comes from import straight from their natural environment.