Fire-eyed loach, Barbucca diabolica

[Quixotic]

Barbucca diabolica was recently available in Singapore and I managed to get two of them initially. However, one was in pretty bad condition and died shortly.

The remaining one is in the quarantine tank, with tea stained water. Took it out for a hurried and bad photo shoot while doing some minor maintenance.

Pardon the rather bad angle and quality of the photo.



B. diabolica is a small loach rarely available in the trade, a gem that tends to be overlooked. The maximum size of the fish is around 2.5 cm TL. The distribution of the fish includes Malay peninsula (Johore) and western Borneo (Kapuas). It lives in small, forested streams and backwaters, feeding on small invertebrates, algae and detritus in nature.

Males and females have an irregular row of 6-8 breeding tubercules on the caudal peduncle. Mature males have distinctive, slightly concave or hook-shaped tubercules just behind the middle of the eye, the fleshy subocular.

Etymology: Barbucca means "beard cheek" in Latin, referring to the tuberculate cheek patch of males. The name diabolica refers to the glowing red eyes and the spiked tail.

Here's the dilemma. I am still not too sure on how best to house the fish. Not very much is known of this fish.

Based on the locality, subdued lighting, soft and acidic water seem to be the preferred condition. As it is a loach, I am also assuming that some flow of water is desirable, but I will probably just go with moderate flow.

Anyone has any experience with them? There seems to be more specimens when it was available here, so did anyone else get them?

[mickthefish]

my mate has quite a few of them, pretty little loach.
he keeps his in tank with a strong current with a ph of neutral and the waters kept cool, but at the moment he's finding that hard to do as were in a heat wave, the temperatures are in the high 80's F and not much cooler at night,

mick

[avant]

I'm still hating myself for missing them when I was at the shop.

There's still little information on them available online though. I think your current setup with subdued lighting and moderate flow should do well for it. Is it feeding well?

Are the tubercles on the caudal peduncle visible?

[Quixotic]

Thanks, mick! Haven't seen you around much, hopefully you are still busy with fish! I will keep your kind information in mind.

avant, not sure if it is feeding well. It is in a tea stained quarantine tank, so visibility is near zero. I do check on it every now and then, and it's moving actively, so I don't think feeding would pose a problem.

Can't see the tubercules though, the only chance was when I put it in the other tank for the quick photo shoot. Hopefully, when I transfer it to the main tank, I would be able to observe more and share.

BTW, just curious, were there any information of the fish in the loaches book by the Loaches Online folks? I don't have it, but am assuming you have the book.

[avant]

Ha. I don't have the book though. I borrowed it from the library instead and had it well-read.
As far as I can remember, the book does not cover B. diabolica. In fact, it does not cover a lot of species in detail.
Your best bet for the information is either at Loaches Online forum (http://forums.loaches.com/) or at this info page (http://www.loaches.com/species-index/barbucca-diabolica)

[andy rushworth]

I'm not certain but I think the fish in the pic is an undescribed Barbucca from Thailand ?