Bhavania australis

28. November 2022

Along the west coast of India runs a mountain range known as the Western Ghats. There is a hotspot of biodiversity. An unusually large number of species of freshwater fish are endemic there, i.e. only found there and nowhere else in the world. These include the two species of the genus Bhavania, namely B. annandalei and B. australis. We were now able to import the latter for the first time.

If you look at our currently about 3-4 cm long animals, they look like many other hillstream loaches. It will be exciting when they reach 8-9 cm, their final size. Then they develop an attractive, contrasting leopard pattern.

Genetic investigations showed that behind the name Bhavania australis probably 7 different species are hiding, which however cannot be distinguished by external characteristics. For aquaristic practice this means that specimens from different sources should never be used for breeding. Otherwise the danger of unintentionally producing hybrids is very high.

For our customers: the animals have code 396001 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesale.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer