Longstripe loach

Nemacheilus longistriatus

Also known as Long-striped stone loach, Black line torpedo loach

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–81°F (22–27°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 5.9 in (15 cm)
Minimum tank: 42 gal (160 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Mekong basin
Family: Nemacheilidae

Overview

A large stone loach that needs to be sized like a small botiid loach: a long floor, robust but peaceful tankmates, and territories marked out in stone. It is sociable and does better in a group, so keep several together and give the tank real length. It grows into a confident, room-owning bottom fish that eats any sinking meaty food, from pellets to frozen bloodworm and chopped prawn. Provide warm, flowing, well-oxygenated water. A tank of around 160 liters or more, longer than it is deep, suits a small group of this sizeable loach.

In the wild

The longstripe loach lives in flowing reaches of the Mekong basin in Thailand and Laos, over sand and cobble in moderate to strong current. Recreate that with a long floor of sand and rounded stone, driftwood for structure, and brisk flow. Keep it warm at 22 to 27 degrees Celsius with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. Clean, oxygen-rich water and open swimming length matter to a loach of this size, so favor a big footprint over height.

Good to know

Nemacheilus longistriatus is one of the larger stone loaches, reaching around 12 to 15 centimeters, and was described by Maurice Kottelat in 1990. Instead of the neat bars typical of the genus, it wears a row of dark flank blotches joined into a long lateral stripe, the feature its name describes. It belongs to the family Nemacheilidae, and its aquarium breeding is not on record.

Did you know

In a genus where nearly every species wears vertical bars, this one instead carries a long horizontal stripe down each flank, formed by a row of dark blotches running together, which is how it earned the name longstripe.

Tank mates

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