What is a Rosy loach

[beastie]

So I heard Cory talking about rosy loaches, but when I checked google, I found conflicting info:

Petruichthys sp. Tuberoschistura arakanensis

just Tuberoschistura arakanensis

"This species continues to be referred to by the fictitious scientific name ‘Tuberoschistura arakensis‘ or as an undescribed Yunnanilus sp. and is also sometimes traded as Y. sp. ‘orange’ or ‘Burmese pink loach’ but appears to be a member of the genus Petruichthys as per Kottelat (2012)."

 

Neither fish is available in europe nor from importers like Glaser it seems, but there are fish like Yunnanilus c. which are also called Miconemacheilus cruciatus which in some pictures looks simillar. One would say Yunnalius is Petruichthys but also it is miconemacheilus? Confused

 

Anyways, have anyone seen Rosy loaches in europe and how come the fish is so popular in the US when it is like one location Myanmar available fish and cant even get the name right.

Thanks

[knee]

I’ve kept them before and they’re really popular with nano fish keepers because they stay small and the males color up well. They’re a joy to watch in a planted aquarium because of how they swim through the plants and investigate. 
 

I’ve observed spawning behavior when I kept them but I doubt any fry survived, if they even tried to actually spawn. They were more popular before because I don’t see them as much in fish stores.

[Biotope Biologist]

Cory carries them at ACO every once in a while. I imagine he gets them from a local breeder. 
 

As for the loaches and their confusing scientific history, I believe they are referred to as Petruicthys rosy most recently. They were once only associated with small localities in the late 1980’s like one town in south east China and one in Myanmar. At that point they were referred to as Yunnanilus as they were thought to only be from Yunnan. Later in the 2010’s to current day loaches and fishes as a whole were looked at again more intensely and they discovered what they were referring to as Yunnanilus was actually 6 species that branched into different genus. And that they actually inhabit the entire lower half of the Mekong and it’s tributaries. I don’t believe they can interbreed but they do look awfully similar.

 

I believe part of the issues for delayed research was the remoteness of some of these areas. There are actually old Chinese naturalist books that refer to all of southeast asia as having a thick miasma in the jungles and therefore could not be traversed.

[kammaroon]

I’m based in the UK and have them. They came from Ruinemans, a Dutch wholesaler, which supplies shops all owner Europe. They are in stock now:

There’s a Coop video where Cory visited Ruinemans.