Tiger Botia

About

The tiger botia (Syncrossus berdmorei) is a large, assertive loach native to clear mountain streams and mid-to-large rivers across Myanmar, India, and central Thailand, with records from the Mekong basin as well. Its patterning, rows of dark spots and vertical body bars, can shift noticeably with age and collection locality, which has caused considerable confusion in the hobby and in the scientific literature. It looks similar enough to Syncrossus beauforti that the two are frequently mixed up, but the tiger botia generally shows larger, less-developed markings on younger fish that spread along the body as the animal matures. This is a species with real personality. Individuals produce audible clicking sounds when excited, thought to come from grinding pharyngeal teeth, and groups work out social hierarchies through dominance displays that cause them to temporarily lose much of their color. A behavior hobbyists call 'greying out.' They should be kept in groups of at least five or six, and ideally more, since singletons often become withdrawn or turn on similarly shaped tankmates. Their assertive nature means slower, long-finned fish and anything much smaller are poor companions. Fast-moving cyprinids and robust, non-territorial catfishes are better choices. Worth noting: newly imported specimens can carry internal parasites, so a quarantine period and close observation are wise steps before introducing them to a display tank.