Horseface loach - Acantopsis choirorhynchos

Contributed by: Stokes»1»

On: July 28, 2006, 4:13 am

The Horseface Loach is a bottom feeder. Not much is known about its habits apart from the fact that it is a nocturnal species and is not easily found during the day, as it burrows in the substrate. These loaches are a peaceful species that do well with other loach species and community fish; and are generally active at night, scrounging on any left over food that other species have ignored. They are able to ’swim’ through gravel and a lot of keepers out there would attest to the difficulty in netting them.

Not much is known about their breeding habits and most specimens come out of the wild.

Horseface loaches can be fed a host of dried flake and granular food, as well as freeze dried and frozen foods.

This species is very elusive and tends toward burrowing in the gravel. With this in mind please excercise caution when doing water chnages including a gravel cleanup as you may inadvertantly cause injury to them.

Contributed by: Morbid»8»

On: September 23, 2006, 3:02 pm

This fish is one of my faves... It’s a funny fish cause it digs in the sand and hides, exposing its funny face.... It is quite nocturnal, however, and sometimes shy... But my fish apparently got acclimitised in my tank that it often pops out of the gravel and feeds... It is a very fast swimmer... love this one..

Contributed by: Tigress»1»

On: November 8, 2006, 12:39 am

Very tough fish. I’ve had mine for four years and it’s still only 3.75" despite reading it gets up to 8" (though it honeslty has not had an easy life. It’s survived my bad aquarium care where as every other fish I’ve had has passed away, neon tetras being the other fish I had good luck with. It also survived the move from apartment to house. It survived being in a tank that got ignored for a few months with occasionally being remembered to put food in... it got stuck in a room no one saw the tank).

I used to see it almost every single day during feeding time. The past year it seems to stay hidden for weeks to months at a time. It does tend to come out more when I’ve moved the tank (moved this year and then moved the tank from original spot to new spot). But when I moved into a new home I halfway expected to find a dead fish as I had not seen him in a longer than usual time.

Despite not seeing it often I’ve always liked this fish. Something about it is very likeable (even before it managed to be my survivor fish). I guess it’s the different personality than the other fish I have had.