''Lepidocephalus'' is a genus of loaches native to rivers in the Southeast Asian countries of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

, north east

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Members of this genus are known as "spirit loaches".Deein, G., Tangjitjaroen, W. & Page, L.M. (2014)
A revision of the spirit loaches, genus ''Lepidocephalus'' (Cypriniformes, Cobitidae).
''Zootaxa, 3779 (3): 341–352.'' They resemble the related kuhli loaches and '' Lepidocephalichthys'' loaches (some species in the latter genus were formerly placed in ''Lepidocephalus''), but are more robust and generally found deep in large rivers. With little or no light in their habitat, their eyes and pigmentation are reduced to various extent. One species, ''L. spectrum'', completely lacks pigment and eyes, similar to

cavefish Cavefish or cave fish is a generic term for fresh and brackish water fish adapted to life in caves and other underground habitats. Related terms are subterranean fish, Troglomorphism, troglomorphic fish, troglobitic fish, stygobitic fish, phreat ...

. They are generally poorly known, but based on the relatively few scientific museum specimens they can reach up to in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

Species

There are currently 5 recognized species in this genus. * '' Lepidocephalus macrochir'' Bleeker, 1854 (Indonesian spirit loach) * '' Lepidocephalus nanensis'' Deein, Tangjitjaroen &

Page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

, 2014 (Thai spirit loach) * '' Lepidocephalus pallens'' Vaillant, 1902 (Pallid spirit loach) * '' Lepidocephalus pahangensis'' de Beaufort, 1933 (Pahang spirit loach) * '' Lepidocephalus spectrum'' T. R. Roberts, 1989 (Blind spirit loach)

References

Cobitidae {{Cobitidae-stub