Savona loach

Schistura savona

Also known as Half-banded Himalayan loach, Half banded loach

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 64–77°F (18–25°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 2 in (5 cm)
Minimum tank: 20 gal (75 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Himalayan foothills, Tista drainage, India
Family: Nemacheilidae

Overview

A small, active stone loach that is reasonable by the standards of its genus, easy to keep as a small group over a varied floor. Give it sand and stone with broken sightlines so each fish can hold a little territory, and pair it with cool-water company such as hill-stream barbs and danios rather than warmwater tropicals. It works the bottom for food, so feed fine sinking items, frozen daphnia, and small bloodworm. A tank of around 75 liters or more, cool and gently flowing, keeps a small group busy and settled.

In the wild

The savona loach lives in fast foothill streams of the eastern Himalaya, in the Tista drainage around Darjeeling and on through Nepal, over beds of gravel and stone. Recreate that with a gravelly floor, rounded rocks, moderate to strong flow, and good oxygen. Keep it cool, from 18 to 25 degrees Celsius, with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. Clean, lively, well-oxygenated water suits it, so favor current and filtration over a warm, planted look.

Good to know

Schistura savona was described by Francis Hamilton in 1822 and reaches about 5 centimeters. It wears a row of narrow bars only across the upper half of the body, a half-banded look that helps pick it out of mixed loach imports. It belongs to the family Nemacheilidae, and its aquarium breeding is not on record. The name is a latinized form of savon khorka, a Bengali name for the fish.

Did you know

Its scientific name is not descriptive at all: savona is simply a latinized version of savon khorka, the Bengali name local people gave the fish, carried straight into the record by Francis Hamilton in 1822.