Banded Mountain Loach

Schistura notostigma differs from all congeners from peninsular India and Sri Lanka by thecombination of the following characters: 6-7 wide, brown bars on the posterior half of the body; width of interspaces equal ½-1 times the width of the bars; black bar on caudal-fin base complete, narrower than the width of the interspaces on the body; emarginate caudal fin; incomplete lateral line ending beneath the dorsal-fin base; adpressed pelvic fin surpassing the anus; 7½ branched rays on dorsal fin; pelvic-fin origin beneath first branched dorsal-fin ray; 4-8 pre-operculo-mandibular pores; and suborbital flap in males absent (Ref. 116162).

Dorsal soft rays (total): 11; Analsoft rays: 8

Prefers to inhabit fast flowing streams with a rock or pebble substrate (Ref. 116162). Found usually browsing among pebbles in shallow, flowing water. Can ascend steep inclines and also occurs in even the highest mountain streams (Ref. 6028).

fisheries: of no interest; aquarium: commercial

Schistura notostigma, the spotback loach, is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Schistura, distributed in peninsula of India and Sri Lanka. Until 2017, it was thought to be the only species of Schistura stone loach found in Sri Lanka before a new species Schistura madhavai, was described.