Common Name: Clown loach

Scientific Name: Botia macracantha

Family: Cobitidae

Origin: Asia, Borneo, Indonesia and Sumatra.

Habitat: Slow moving Streams.

Diet: Omnivorous, they will accept most aquarium foods. But try to vary their diet like you would any other fish, Especially vegetables to keep them looking their best.

General Information: The most colorful and popular of the loaches, the Clown Loach is moderately elongated and laterally compressed. It has an arched back, an almost straight belly profile, and four pairs of barbels. The barbels located on the lower jaw are very small. The head is large and the mouth faces downward, with thick fleshy lips. The spine in front of the eye is quite short. The general coloration is bright orange and the flanks are crossed by three wide, wedge- shaped black bands. The first band runs from the top of the skull across the eye and then obliquely down to the region of the mouth; the second starts in front of the dorsal fin and extends down to the belly, and the third covers a large part of the caudal peduncle and runs down onto the anal fin. The pectoral, ventral, and caudal fins are yellowish with black markings.

The Clown Loach is not a shy as the other loaches. Often quite active in the day, they can be easily kept in a community tank with other fishes. It is very helpful to buy Clown Loaches in pairs, since they are happiest with a companion. In fact, they have even been seen to form a small shoal with armored catfish. One unusual Clown Loach trait is resting on the bottom of the tank on their sides. Although this may alarm owners at first, most come to realize that this is, in fact, a normal behavior.

The tank should have a soft substrate that will allow the fishes to burrow for food. Clown Loaches will eat a wide variety of foods including: brine shrimp, bloodworms, snails, and various dried foods (The dried food should be high in protein). Rocks and roots suitably placed in the tank will provide shelter. Most clown loaches prefer homes that are only slightly larger than they are. The water should be soft and changed often

Once they are established, Clown Loaches live for several years in an aquarium, where they grow slowly, but seldom reach the size recorded for wild specimens (About one foot). They have not been bred in captivity; probably because they do not reach full sexual maturity.

Due to the popularity of these fishes, they have become increasingly harder to find, and most of the available stock is quite small and expensive. If you do find some Clown Loaches at a decent size and price, buy them before someone else does!