Dwarf Chain Loach Ambastaia sidthimunki (prev. Botia/Yasuhikotakia)

The Dwarf Chain Loach was once common in river basins of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand but populations have fallen massively through construction of hydro-electric dams which prevent the loach from migrating upstream for spawning. Range is currently limited to western Thailand and Myanmar and those populations are critically endangered.

The Dwarf Chain Loach has 4 pairs of barbels and grows to some 6cm long. Body colour can be silver-white or gold, always with a black mesh pattern. (The larger Black-lined Loach, A. nigrolineata, can sometimes have faint meshing between its lines.) Juveniles have more black (above right). Although usually on the river/stream bed, unusually for loaches but like the Clown Loach, they sometimes school together actively in mid water.