Giant stone loach

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a specialist coldwater predator, not a community fish. It grows to around half a meter and eats fish and invertebrates it can catch, so it is best kept singly, and any tankmates are a real risk rather than companions. In most climates it needs active chilling to stay in its cold comfort zone, plus pond-scale filtration and a very large footprint. Feed meaty foods such as earthworms, prawn, mussel, and sinking carnivore pellets. Plan on a tank of around 480 liters or more, kept cold, with heavy filtration and a secure lid; this is a long-term commitment to a big, cold-water animal.

In the wild

The giant stone loach lives in the cold upper reaches of the Yellow River in Qinghai and Gansu, on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where the water stays cold year-round and can freeze in winter. Recreate that with a genuinely cold tank, from 10 to 20 degrees Celsius, a large open floor, boulders and rockwork, and hard, alkaline water at a pH of 7 to 8. Strong filtration and cool, oxygen-rich water are essential; ordinary tropical warmth will slowly kill it.

Good to know

Triplophysa siluroides is the largest loach in the family Nemacheilidae, reaching around 55 centimeters and well over a kilogram. Its species name means catfish-like, and it fills a catfish's role as the big bottom predator of its river. The genus Triplophysa is the great high-altitude loach group of Central Asia. Wild numbers have fallen to fishing and habitat loss, and it is treated as vulnerable in China. Its aquarium breeding is not documented.

Did you know

A loach of half a meter from a river three thousand meters up: it outgrows a clown loach several times over and lives where the shallows can freeze solid in winter, about as far from a tropical community tank as a loach gets.

Common questions

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