The massive decline in wild populations, hypothesised to be in excess of 90% since the mid-1980s, is thought to have been caused by a variety of factors, including habitat alteration due to construction of dams and other infrastructure, removal of riparian vegetation, and urban pollution, plus over fishing for both human consumption and the aquarium trade.

Known from the middle Mekong basin in Laos and Thailand, including the Mun tributary drainage on the Khorat Plateau in northeastern Thailand, plus the Chao Phraya and Mae Klong watersheds in central and western Thailand, respectively. In the Mekong system it may also occur further upriver in Yunnan province, China, while the Khone Falls in Laos appear to represent its downstream limit.

It is thought to have been extirpated from the Chao Phraya and Mae Klong rivers, Lake Songkhla, and the entire island of Java due to a variety of anthropogenic factors, and the Mekong populations have also been drastically reduced. In particular, it is sensitive to pollution and gillnetting, and is heavily overfished.

There is a fish of unknown geographical origin which matches the majority of diagnostic features for L. setigerum with the exception that the dark lateral stripe is absent in the anterior portion of the body and is not composed of interconnected spots. It is relatively common in the aquarium trade and included here as L. cf. setigerum until a confirmed identity is established.

L. bleekeri is most-easily distinguished from the congener L. setigerum, with which it is frequently confused, by absence (vs. presence) of a series of black spots on the lateral line scales.

Lobocheilos species are specialised grazers of periphyton, benthic algae, and other organisms which grow attached to rocks and other solid surfaces, and they typically leave visible scrape marks in places where they have been feeding.

They are by no means herbivorous and should be offered meaty foods such as live or frozen chironomid larvae (bloodworm), Tubifex, Artemia, chopped prawn, etc., along with good quality, sinking dried products, at lea…

The majority of Lobocheilos species are endemic to the Greater Sunda Islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, and are uncommon in the aquarium trade, but the widespread Indochinese taxa L. melanotaenia and L. rhabdoura are available on a sporadic basis.

L. melanotaenia can be distinguished from L. rhabdoura by the following comb…

G. siamensis can be distinguished from congeners by the following combination of characters: possession of 5½ lateral line scales; body relatively deep, depth fits 3.2-3.4 times in SL; head large and broad, width fits 5.5-6.7 times in SL; snout not or only weakly projecting; body plain silver in colour with no dark marking on caudal peduncle.

G. lobatus can be distinguished from congeners by the following combination of characters: possession of 32-33 + 2-3 lateral line scales; 5½ scale rows between lateral line and base of dorsal-fin; body relatively slender, depth fits 3.7-4.0 times in SL; snout often projecting strongly; body plain silver in colour.

Native to the Mekong River drainage in Laos (where Vientiane province represents the upper limit of its range), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and the Tapi, Chao Phraya, and Mae Klong systems in Thailand.

Type locality is ’22 kilometers upstream from Phnom Penh, Tonle Sap River, Kandal Province, Cambodia’.