Hanshu hillstream loach

Metahomaloptera omeiensis

Also known as Hanshu lizard hillstream loach, Omei hillstream loach

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 61–72°F (16–22°C)
pH: 6.0–7.5
Adult size: 2.4 in (6 cm)
Minimum tank: 21 gal (80 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Mount Emei streams, Sichuan, China
Family: Gastromyzontidae

Overview

A cold-water specialist that needs genuinely cool, fast, oxygen-saturated water and will slowly starve and weaken in warm, still tanks. Keep it in a small, peaceful group of five or six over smooth stone, where it grips the rock and grazes biofilm through the day. Because grazing alone rarely sustains it in captivity, offer fine sinking foods, crushed wafers, and small frozen items, and make sure the current does not carry them off. Its tankmates should be other cool-water, current-loving fish of calm temperament. A tank of around 80 liters with strong flow and a boulder field suits a group; keeping it cool through summer is the real challenge.

In the wild

This loach grips stone in cold, tumbling streams on Mount Emei in Sichuan, western China, high enough that the water stays cold and fast year round. Recreating that is mostly about temperature and oxygen: hold it at 16 to 22 C, run heavy flow, and keep the surface broken so oxygen stays saturated. Use smooth boulders and cobbles for grazing, a fine substrate, and a slightly acidic to neutral pH of 6.0 to 7.5.

Good to know

Metahomaloptera omeiensis is a small hillstream loach, about 6 centimeters, in the family Gastromyzontidae. It was described by Chang in 1944 and named for Mount Emei, its type locality; the genus prefix meta points to its intermediate form between two other loach groups. Like its relatives, it presses its paired fins against the rock to form a suction hold in fast water. Its spawning behaviour is not on record.

Did you know

Its home, Mount Emei, is one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains, ringed with temples; the loach holds fast to the rocks in the cold streams running down below them.

Tank mates

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