HAT COMES TO mind when you think of barbs? Is it fin nipping? Aggression, maybe? Perhaps you imagine species with notorious community tank reputations. And what about loaches? Nowadays, many of us immediately think of giants like the clown loach, or the many coldwater species.
In this article, we want to showcase two incredibly peaceful and manageable species in a replica of their natural habitat. And we were delighted at how well they settled in to it! Please welcome the snakeskin barb, Desmopuntius rhomboocellatus, and the ‘knhli’, half-banded, or eel loach, Pangio semicincta.
Meet the cast
Snakeskin barbs—sometimes called rhombo barbs as a shortening of their species name—are cyprinids that originate from the streams and lakes of Borneo. Shoaling fish, they can be found in considerable congregations in the wild,…