Cloud loach

Schistura nubigena

Also known as Cloudborn stone loach, Cloud back loach

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 64–75°F (18–24°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 2 in (5 cm)
Minimum tank: 20 gal (75 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Mali Hka drainage near Putao, Kachin, Myanmar
Family: Nemacheilidae

Overview

A small, handsome stone loach for a cool river tank, gentler on tankmates than its larger cousins simply because of its size. Keep a few together over a stony floor with enough broken-up cover for each to hold a small territory. It suits calm, coolwater companions such as small danios and hill-stream fish that share its taste for oxygen and flow. Feed fine sinking foods, frozen daphnia, and small bloodworm. A tank of around 75 liters or more, cool and well-oxygenated, keeps a small group settled and active on the bottom.

In the wild

The cloud loach comes from the Mali Hka drainage near Putao in the far north of Myanmar's Kachin State, cool, clear streams at the edge of the eastern Himalaya. Recreate that with gravel and smooth stone, brisk current, and high oxygen. Keep it cool, from 18 to 24 degrees Celsius, with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. Clean, moving water and a stony, mist-fed-stream feel suit it better than warm, planted-tank conditions.

Good to know

Schistura nubigena is a small stone loach, reaching only about 5 centimeters. Its bars partly fuse in adults to leave a row of pale, cloud-like spots along the back, and it is this pattern, not the misty valley it lives in, that gave it the Latin name meaning cloud-born. It belongs to the family Nemacheilidae and has no recorded aquarium breeding.

Did you know

Its name, nubigena, means born of the clouds, but it refers to the soft white spots along its back, formed where the dark bars break apart, rather than to the cloud-wrapped mountains near its home at Putao.