Banded hillstream loach

Pseudogastromyzon fasciatus

Also known as Striped butterfly loach, Zebra hillstream loach

FreshwaterFish

Banded hillstream loach (Pseudogastromyzon fasciatus) — The Wet Spot Tropical Fish · Used with permission

Care at a glance

Temperature: 64–75°F (18–24°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 3.9 in (10 cm)
Minimum tank: 25 gal (95 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Southeastern China
Family: Gastromyzontidae

Overview

Keep this sturdy grazer in a small group, ideally five or more, since it is a sociable fish that settles better with its own kind around it. It is mostly peaceful, though males push and shove over the best grazing stones without doing real harm, so give them a spread of flat rocks to divide up. It works the bottom and the rock faces all day, rasping algae and biofilm, and should be topped up with sinking pellets, crushed wafers, and small frozen foods. Good tankmates are other calm, cool-water fish that can handle the current, such as white cloud mountain minnows or small danios. Around 95 liters gives a group enough grazing area to spread out.

In the wild

The banded hillstream loach comes from fast, subtropical streams in southeastern China, water that stays cool for much of the year and runs clear over stone. It is not a tropical fish, so keep it unheated or lightly cooled at 18 to 24 C with strong flow and high oxygen. Furnish the tank with smooth boulders and cobbles that can grow a film of algae, use a sand and gravel base, and hold the pH between 6.5 and 7.5.

Good to know

This is a Pseudogastromyzon, one of the Chinese butterfly loaches in the family Gastromyzontidae, and it reaches about 10 centimeters. Sauvage first described it in 1878, and the epithet fasciatus means banded, for the dark bars crossing its brownish back. Its aquarium breeding is not documented, though related species in the genus spawn in excavated pits.

Did you know

The genus name Pseudogastromyzon means false Gastromyzon: when Nichols set it up in 1925, these Chinese loaches looked so much like the Borneo suckers of that older genus that he wrote the resemblance straight into the name.

Tank mates

Banded hillstream loach is a mostly peaceful, social species that keeps to the bottom. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.