Erromyzon

Erromyzon sinensis is a gastromyzontid loach from the Xi Jiang (West River) system in southern China, mostly in Guangxi. It is extremely rare to nonexistent in the aquarium trade, although its name has been widely misapplied to congeners such as the unidentified E. sp. 'ER02'. An obligate bottom-dweller, it lives in shallow, fast-flowing, highly-oxygenated headwaters and minor tributaries, clinging to rocks with its flattened body and horizontally-orientated paired fins.

Erromyzon sp. 'ER01' is an unidentified gastromyzontid loach, probably native to the Xi Jiang (West River) system in southern China. Its range is unconfirmed: the fish pictured arrived as a contaminant in a shipment of Beaufortia kweichowensis. It appears somewhat similar to Erromyzon yangi. Like its congeners it needs the clean, well-oxygenated, fast-flowing water of shallow headwaters and minor tributaries.

Erromyzon sp. 'ER02' is an unidentified gastromyzontid loach from southern China, traded as Erromyzon sp. 'red spots'. Other trade names include 'Strawberry Spot Sucker Loach', and it has also been sold as a Gastromyzon or Pseudogastromyzon species. No other Erromyzon is known with a dark base colour, thin paler vertical bars on the body and similar spots on the head, and older fish develop red spots along the lateral line.