Photo: Leo-nie-weh-oh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Butterfly hillstream loach
Beaufortia leveretti
11 cm
Adult size
60 L
Minimum volume
4
Minimum group
8 years
Lifespan
Water parameters
Understand these values- Genus
- Beaufortia
- Diet
- herbivore and omnivore
- Social life
- small group
In the wild
Overview
Described in 1927 by John Treadwell Nichols and Clifford Pope, Beaufortia leveretti is a hillstream loach with a very flattened body, almost circular seen from above, marbled in brown and beige. The genus Beaufortia honours the Dutch ichthyologist Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort.
Like Gastromyzon, it belongs to the family Gastromyzontidae: its paired fins form a sucker that holds it to stones in the current. The IUCN lists it as data deficient.
- Scientific name
- Beaufortia leveretti (Nichols & Pope, 1927)
- Classification
- Cypriniformes › Gastromyzontidae
- IUCN Red List
- Data deficient (DD)
Natural habitat
Southern China and northern Vietnam
Observations (GBIF) and localities Native countries Rivers and lakes
It lives in mountain streams of southern China and northern Vietnam.
It frequents torrents with gravel and stone beds and clear, cool (18 to 24 °C), highly oxygenated water, where it grazes the biofilm on the rocks.
Behaviour
Peaceful, it spends its time stuck to stones and glass. It may defend a small territory against its own kind, without serious harm.
It needs an aquarium with a strong current, well oxygenated and not too warm, with smooth algae-covered stones; top up with algae wafers and small prey. It copes badly with the warm, still water of standard tropical tanks.