Protomyzon pachychilus ~ rare!

[apistoworld(HK)]

Protomyzon pachychilus ~ rare !

one of the endangered fish species
Is a very rare and valuable species, the original growth in China's western region, is a unique species, from the largest fish, only 5 cm, a strong physique, adaptable, active and lively, easy to raise.

[planted86]

wow... nice... front view looks like bamboo shark...

[avant]

A very beautiful loach. I believe they are now called Erromyzon yangi.
It'll be good to see them in our shores

[MrTree]

A very beautiful loach. I believe they are now called Erromyzon yangi.

you got the paper??

lots of the native fish lovers here are against the commercial trade of this fish now..

[Mimbon]

dear Mr. Tree

Do you have any info who made the identification of this species? I checked the scientific description and the pic of the holotpye in Neely et al 2007 ,E. yangi has no vertical bars,only one big black line over the body,also Protomyzon pachychilus is different.
Do you know where the fishes sold in Hk are sold are coming from? Locality?

Regards

Roland

www.mimbon.de

[avant]

Unfortunately, I don't have the paper for it. But from what I read, they originates from Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) drainage of the Guangxi Province in China.
In case anyone is looking for the paper, the reference is "Neely DA, Conway KW and RL Mayden (2007) - Erromyzon yangi, a new hillstream loach (Teleostei: Balitoridae) from the Pearl River drainage of Guangxi Province, China. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. "

I first saw the sighting in a post over at www.loaches.com last month. The guy who posted the photos happens to be from Hong Kong as well.

As much as I hope to get my hands on them, I do hope they aren't over-collected and driven to extinction. Any habitat pictures of these creatures?

[MrTree]

they are from Jinxiu county at Da Yao mountain region...famous place for many other stuff..

http://www.gxtravel.com/Map/default.asp

check out this one i took from Hainan island..also zebra marking, but when it grows, just turn normal..

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t=IMG_7159.jpg

[Quixotic]

A very beautiful loach. I believe they are now called Erromyzon yangi.
It'll be good to see them in our shores

avant, do you meant P. pachyphilus is now called E. yangi, that they are the same fish? I am a little confused now.

I read an article on Practical Fishkeeping (PFK) about the E. yangi paper and seem to understand it differently. PFK mentions that there are 3 different but similar fishes, E. yangi, P. pachyphilus and E. sinensis. Although I don't quite fully understood the difference as mentioned in the article, E. yangi and P. pachyphilus are supposedly 2 different fishes. So this fish could still either be E. yangi or "P." pachyphilus?
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u....php?news=1277

[avant]

Very very sorry. I was terribly mistaken. They are two different fish. The photo shown here is Protomyzon pachychilus and not Erromyzon yangi.

[Quixotic]

No worries, avant. Just to make sure I am understanding the article correctly.

These loaches sure looks pretty, reminds me of Schistura pridii.

[MrTree]

Protomyzon is restricted to Borneo. Chinese ones are Erromyzon.

I don't know who identified it, below is E.sinensis.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...n_sinensis.jpg

[avant]

I'm slightly confused.
So the name Protomyzon is incorrect for this loach since it is from China?

[Quixotic]

Ah I guess that is why the PFK article refers to "Protomyzon" pachychilus using double quotation marks. So I assume that there is still some research to be done for "P." pachychilus and maybe assign to the proper genus in future?

[avant]

You might be correct on the quotation marks. Let's wait for the updated paper on it then.

[chedra]

So pachychilus stay b&w as adults? Given that the color pattern development of 2 Sewellia species are known to turn from blotches in fry to horizontal lines/spots in adults it is quite likely that pachychilus won't stay nice for long?

[MrTree]

it probably won't, now i remember i have the red data book...will check it tonight

[chedra]

I've check the loaches forum and it looks like in half grown specimens the barred pattern starts to break up, head changes shape, and pectoral fins expand.

[MrTree]

just checked my books including Fauna Sinica..below is english description in red data book

Body color brownish yellow on back, grayish yellow on belly, top of head dark brown and with one black spot on both sides, dark streaks not obvious but with horizontal stripes along lateral line......

so only look good when young..

[chedra]

That's description on life color?

[blueblue]

just checked my books including Fauna Sinica..below is english description in red data book

Body color brownish yellow on back, grayish yellow on belly, top of head dark brown and with one black spot on both sides, dark streaks not obvious but with horizontal stripes along lateral line......

so only look good when young..

I also acquired some
Well, according to a journal paper by Kong et al., the "panda" pattern only appears when the fish is young, the adult one looks very different. This paper has two pictures which show this point explicitly.

Reference: Kong, Chan and Yang: "Threatened fishes of the world: Protomyzon pachychilus Chen, 1980 (Balitoridae", Envion Biol Fish ( 2008 ) 83:243-244.