Creek loach

Schistura beavani

Also known as Beavan's stone loach, Ring loach

FreshwaterFish

Creek loach (Schistura beavani) — The Wet Spot Tropical Fish · Used with permission

Care at a glance

Temperature: 64–77°F (18–25°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 3.9 in (10 cm)
Minimum tank: 29 gal (110 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Himalayan foothill drainages, India and Nepal
Family: Nemacheilidae

Overview

A sturdy, medium stone loach for an unheated hill-stream tank, best kept with flow-loving fish such as danios and other subtropical species overhead. Keep a few together and give each one its own rockwork territory, since they claim and defend patches of the floor. Provide strong current, smooth boulders and cobbles, and high oxygen. Feed sinking meaty foods: bloodworm, chopped prawn, and sinking pellets. Keep the water cool and moving rather than warm and still. A tank of around 110 liters or more with a rocky, current-swept floor suits a small group.

In the wild

The creek loach lives in cool, clear foothill streams along the eastern Himalaya in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, water that runs swift over stone and pebble. Recreate that as a river tank with strong flow, rounded rocks, and a gravel bed. Keep it cool, from 18 to 25 degrees Celsius, with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. Good oxygen and steady current keep it healthy, so a well-filtered, coolish tank suits it far better than a warm, sluggish one.

Good to know

Schistura beavani reaches about 10 centimeters and is one of the older names in its genus, described by Albert Gunther in 1868. Its barring varies across a wide Himalayan range, and several similar-looking loaches have been split off from it over the years, so trade fish under this name are not always the same species. It belongs to the family Nemacheilidae, with no recorded aquarium breeding.

Did you know

The species is named for Captain Robert Cecil Beavan, a British army officer and naturalist in India who died in 1870 at just twenty-nine, his collections outliving him in the fishes that still carry his name.