''Botia udomritthiruji'' (emperor loach) is a small

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are fish species that spend some or all of their lives in bodies of fresh water such as rivers, lakes, ponds and inland wetlands, where the salinity is less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine habitats in many wa ...

in the loach family

Botiidae Botiidae, the pointface loaches, is a family of cypriniform ray-finned fishes from South, Southeast, and East Asia. Until recently they were placed in the true loach family Cobitidae, until Maurice Kottelat revised the loaches and re-elevated t ...

native to the Great Tenasserim (Tanintharyi) River Basin in south

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

. It reaches in length, and the female's abdomen plumper than the abdomen of the male.SeriouslyFish:
Botia udomritthiruji.
' Retrieved 15 July 2014. This fish species was first caught about 1993 and was identified only relatively recently. It lives in the

Tenasserim Hills The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range (, ; , , ; ) is the geographical name of a roughly 1,700 km long mountain chain, part of the Indo-Malayan mountain system in Southeast Asia. Despite their relatively scant altitude these mo ...

, in the upper Great Tenasserim River drainage area. It was named after Thai aquarist and fish exporter Kamphol Udomritthiruj. It was described in 2007, being the most recent addition to the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Botia''. Emperor loaches are peaceful fish suitable to community

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

tanks. However, they are difficult to obtain because of the inaccessibility of the areas where they live, that is in the Tenasserim range forests where there are almost no roads and most trails are infested by

leech Leeches are segmented parasitism, parasitic or Predation, predatory worms that comprise the Class (biology), subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the Oligochaeta, oligochaetes, which include the earthwor ...

es. Unfortunately the area where they live is subject to heavy

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

owing to

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

operations. Formerly there was also insurgency in this section of the hills.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3755053 udomritthiruji Tenasserim Hills Taxa named by Heok Hee Ng Fish described in 2007