Scientific Name- Botia lohachata
(Chaudhry, 1912)
Common Name- Tiger loach, ‘Y’ loach
Local Name- Baghi, Lohachta
Classification
| Class | Osteichthyes |
| Sub-Class | Actinopterygii |
| Order | Cypriniformes |
| Family | Cobitidae |
| Sub family | Botinae |
| Genus | Botia |
| Species | lohachata |
Habits and habitat
Botia lohachata fish occurs in lotic and lentic water system. Mostly found in Gandak river and Triveni canals, Bagmati canals and also found in chaurs, floodplain area, ditches, tanks, beels of Champaran, Muzaffarpur and a few in other districts of Bihar.
Salient features
Body is elongated, cylindrical, with flattened ventral surface. The ground colour of the body is olive to golden yellowish with silvery grey or earthy brown with series of “Y” shaped marking. Arms of Y on each side meet on the top of the body so that it shows about four “0” shaped markings.These species has a deep colour vertical bands along its body. It is very shy in nature mainly nocturnal. This fish lives at the bottom with rocky and gravelled basin. It is fast with moderate movement and active at night and eats almost everything at night, but refusing even daphnia in daytime.
It feeds on plant-matter, plankton, aquatic insects and worms and is found in narrow streams having muddy substratum and with less velocity and attains a length of9-11cm. This species ofloach is very popular, attractive and beautiful for aquarium. It has high demand in international trade market.
source-
- Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore
