Search the catalogue

Another massively popular aquarium fish, with dozens of selectively bred varieties available. Some of these are produced by crossbreeding with X.helleri or X. maculatus. Unfortunately many commercially bred platies are not very hardy due to inbreeding and over-production and are prone to disease and premature death. The wild X. variatus can be distinguished from X. maculatus by its slimmer, more elongated body shape and slightly longer dorsal fin. This last feature has been seized upon by many...

Juvenile specimens were first exported for the aquarium hobby during 2009 and have since been available on a sporadic basis with prices generally reflecting its rarity and, hopefully, number of specimens being collected. The striking black-and-white-striped juvenile colour pattern inspired the vernacular name although it's sometimes labelled as 'panda goby' rather than 'panda loach'.

This specie is relatively rare in the aquarium trade and much sought after by enthusiasts as a result. It looks relatively similar to Y. splendida but can be told apart from it, and indeed all other members of the genus, by the following combination of characters: possession of 8 branched dorsal-fin rays; 32-33 vertebrae; one or two small, brownish, vertically-orientated markings on the dorsal part of the body posterior to the dorsal fi...

Y. eos isn't as commonly-traded as it once was but is still available occasionally. It's difficult to confuse with any other member of the genus due to its colour pattern consisting of yellow to reddish brown base body colour (can appear greyish in some specimens, especially post-import or when introduced to a new aquarium) with a metallic green/blue golden sheen and large darkish marking on either side of the caudal peduncle. The fins can be yellowish to reddish, and the dorsal and c...

This species is sometimes confused with Y. modesta though in reality the two are readily distinguishable from one another by body shape since Y. lecontei is a slimmer, more elongate fish. Further, in Y. lecontei the overall body colouration is usually brownish with a gold/green sheen and the dark markings...

This species is one of the more commonly-encountered botiids in the hobby and is also sold as 'blue', 'orange-finned', or 'red-finned' botia/loach. It's sometimes subject to artificial colouring with bright blue or purple dyes and we strongly recommend you do not purchase such fish (they're illegal in several countries).

This species is common in the hobby and also sold as 'skunk botia' or 'Hora's loach', the latter in reference to Botia horae Smith, 1931, currently considered a synonym of Y. morleti. It's similar in appearance to the rarely-seen Y. longidorsalis but can be told apart by the fact it has a dark stripe running over the dorsal surface (this giving rise to the vernacular name 'skunk loach') which is lacking in its relative. The two can be further separated...

This species first appeared in the trade during 2009 with prices initially variable but in the main prohibitively expensive, and it remains expensive when available. We've seen it on sale under various names including 'jaguar loach', 'splendid loach' and 'yellow-tail polka dot loach'. It appears superficially similar to Y. caudipunctata, Y. longidorsalis and Y. morleti but can be distinguished from all by a combination of characters of which the most immedia...

A single male of the Tequila Splitfin was sampled in 1955 by Miller and Greenbank, but identified erroneously as Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis, with which species it was collected and found sympatrically . Many years later, the mistake was detected, the fish identified as a new species and finally, 43 years after the first capture, described by Webb and Miller. In 2001, a wild population of this species was rediscovered in a very small spring pool (3 x 4m in diameter). The population there was composed of only a handful of adult fish and a few tens of juveniles (De la Vega-Salazar et al., 2003). In 2007, N. W. Bailey et al showed, that the allelic richness of this population (though it was comparable in size to an aquatic stock) was higher than in any aquatic stock. In 2013 the loss of this population was reported (pers. comm. Domínguez), so there is not much hope that this species is still persisting in the wild.