Green tiger loach

Care at a glance

Overview

The green tiger loach is a barred botiid with a feisty streak that patrols the bottom of the tank. It is better suited to a keeper with some practice than to a beginner.

Caring for the green tiger loach

Keep green tiger loaches in a group of five or more, so their energy goes toward their own kind rather than their tank mates. A group of these active loaches needs a long tank of 40 gal (150 L) or larger.

Build a maze of caves and gaps from smooth stones and driftwood over a soft sand floor. Give them plenty of shaded hideouts. A fish that cannot claim a retreat tends to take out its restlessness on its neighbors.

Keep the water at 77 to 86°F (25 to 30°C) with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5 and strong, oxygen-rich flow. Feed sinking pellets, frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and the odd vegetable. They dig through sand and stone for food and take snails readily.

The green tiger loach is mostly peaceful but can be nippy and territorial. Give it space, and pair it with sturdy, fast midwater fish. In the wild it is a scatter-spawning, migratory breeder. There is no reliable record of it breeding in home aquaria, so the fish for sale are collected from the wild.

Good to know

Syncrossus hymenophysa is a botiid loach with a blue-green body crossed by a dozen or so dark vertical bars. Like all members of Botiidae it carries a bifid, erectile spine below each eye, used in defense. The spine snags easily in nets, so handle the fish with care.

In the wild

Syncrossus hymenophysa is found across Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. It lives in warm, flowing rivers and streams over sand and rock, in water that runs slightly acidic to neutral.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Redfin tiger loach

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• 

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• 

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• 

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• 

  Chinese emperor loach

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• 

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