For the first time ever we obtained a species of Batasio from North Bengal in India. They belong to the species Batasio fasciolatus, which was described scientifically only in 2006. One can see that the determination of species of Batasio is not that easy keeping in mind that B. fasciolatus was already subject of an ichthyological study and even illustrated back in 1941; however, at that time it was wrongly determined as B. tengana.
Keeping Batasio in aquaria is – in contrast to the determination – rather easy. These fish inhabit brooks and other flowing waters, so they prefer a clear and well filtered water that should be not too warm. 18-24°C are a good choice for keeping Batasio. The animals have comparatively short barbels and often swim in the open water column, they are not strictly bottom dwellers like many other catfish. Against conspecifics and other fish that are not too small (in that case they may be eaten) Batasio are absolutely peaceful, one can consider them even as social animals. To the best of our knowledge the maximum size of B. fasciolatus is about 7-8 cm.
Batasio fasciolatus feeds readily on any type of usual fish food, may it be flakes, granulated food, frozen or live food.
For our customers: the animals have code 372868 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
