Nemacheilidae

Red-tailed Squirrel Loach

Aborichthys elongatus

An elongated loach of shallow swift streams

• Red
• Tropical
• Regional distribution
• Freshwater fish
• South Asia
• Elongated
• Small
• Tropical fish

Adorned with an electric carmine tail that blazes against turbulent mountain torrents, the red-tailed squirrel loach is an elegant, elongated rheophilic nemacheilid native to the sub-Himalayan hill streams of northern India. Its slender, cylindrical, snake-like body displays a sandy-tan or golden-yellow ground color crossed along the flanks by thirty to forty narrow, dark vertical bars that extend from the dorsal midline down to the pale belly. The defining morphological hallmark is its bright crimson or vivid carmine-red caudal fin, which is accented at the upper base of the caudal peduncle by a distinct, intensely black circular ocellus spot. An inferior, downward-pointing mouth is ringed by three pairs of sensitive barbels that probe rock surfaces for food. Endemic to the torrential, oxygen-saturated hill streams of Darjeeling in West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh, it inhabits clear gravel runs and turbulent riffles. A bottom-dwelling insectivore, it wedges its supple body securely beneath river stones to forage on mayfly nymphs and midges. Maximum recorded total length reaches seven point four centimetres.

Sources: FishBase & ZSI — Red-tailed Squirrel Loach, Aborichthys elongatus