''Botia dario'' (Bengal loach or queen loach) is a species of fish in the loach family

Botiidae Botiidae 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 this taxon to family rank ...

found in the

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. It ...

and

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

basins in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

and northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

.SeriouslyFish:
Botia dario.
' Retrieved 15 July 2014. The species is overall widespread. In Bangladesh, ''B. dario'' is threatened by

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

used in the cultivation of

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

. Since 1997, the

Bangladesh government The Cabinet of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের মন্ত্রিসভা) is the chief executive body of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The cabinet is the collective decision-making body of the entire government under ...

has enforced strict penalties against polluters, with specific rules about the pollution of streams and waterways. ''B. dario'' can be found in the creeks and streams of the northern and eastern regions of the country (bordering India and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, respectively). The fish most likely populates the streams that supply the

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

section of the Ganges River. ''B. dario'' is also reported in Bhutan, but only in the Gaylegphug River, which eventually drains into the far north of Bangladesh.

In the aquarium

''Botia dario'' is a good fish to have in tropical aquariums, quickly taking care of pest snail populations and less shy than '' B. striata''. They get as long as 6 inches (15.24 cm) and are commonly kept in groups of 4 or more. They are omnivores and are fed sinking pellets as well as algae wafers. They also enjoy fresh vegetables, such as

cucumber Cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated Vine#Horticultural climbing plants, creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical Fruit, fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.

zucchini The zucchini (; plural: zucchini or zucchinis), courgette (; plural: courgettes) or baby marrow (''Cucurbita pepo'') is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are stil ...

, and frozen foods like bloodworms and

brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp. It is the only genus in the family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to the first half of the 10th century AD from Urmia La ...

References

Botiidae Fish of Bangladesh Fish of India Taxa named by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton Fish described in 1822 {{Cypriniformes-stub