Balitoridae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Superclassis/Classis: Actinopterygii
Classis/Subclassis: Actinopteri
Subclassis/Infraclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Megacohors: Osteoglossocephalai
Supercohors: Clupeocephala
Cohors: Otomorpha
Subcohors: Ostariophysi
Sectio: Otophysa
Ordo: Cypriniformes
Subordo: Cobitoidei
Familia: Balitoridae
Genera: Balitora – Balitoropsis – Bhavania – Cryptotora – Ghatsa – Hemimyzon – Homaloptera – Homalopteroides – Homalopterula – Jinshaia – Lepturichthys – Metahomaloptera – Neohomaloptera – Paraprotomyzon – Pseudohomaloptera – Sinogastromyzon – Travancoria
Aborichthys - Acanthocobitis - Barbatula - Barbucca - Dzihunia - Heminoemacheilus - Homatula - Ilamnemacheilus - Indoreonectes - Lefua - Longischistura - Mesonoemacheilus - Micronemacheilus - Nemacheilus - Nemachilichthys - Neonoemacheilus - Nun - Oreias - Oreonectes - Orthrias - Paracobitis - Paranemachilus - Physoschistura - Protonemacheilus - Schistura - Sectoria - Seminemacheilus - Sphaerophysa - Sundoreonectes - Traccatichthys - Triplophysa - Tuberoschistura - Turcinoemacheilus - Vaillantella -

Name

Balitoridae Swainson, 1839

Type genus: Balitora Gray, 1830

Synonyms
References

Randall, Z.S. & Page, L.M. 2015. On the paraphyly of Homaloptera (Teleostei: Balitoridae) and description of a new genus of hillstream loaches from the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa 3926(1): 57–86. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3926.1.2. Reference page.
Randall, Z.S. & Riggs, P.A. 2015: Revision of the hillstream lizard loaches, genus Balitoropsis (Cypriniformes: Balitoridae). Zootaxa 3962(1): 206–225. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3962.1.13. Preview (PDF) Full article (PDF) Reference page.
Swainson, W.J. 1839. The natural history and classification of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals. Spottiswoode & Co.: London. vol. 2: i–vi + 1–448. BHL Reference page.

Links

Balitoridae and its species in FishBase,
Froese, R. & Pauly, D. (eds.) 2024. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication, www.fishbase.org, version 02/2024.
Genera of Balitoridae (including synonyms) in Catalog of Fishes, Eschmeyer, W.N., Fricke, R. & van der Laan, R. (eds.) 2024. Catalog of Fishes electronic version.

Vernacular names
Deutsch: Plattschmerlen
English: Hillstream loach
eesti: Trullinglased
հայերեն: Բալիտորաձկներ
한국어: 종개과
lietuvių: Plokštieji vijūnai
Nederlands: Steenkruipers
polski: Przylgowate
ไทย: ปลาค้อ, ปลาผีเสื้อติดหิน, ปลาจิ้งจก, ปลาซัคเกอร์ผีเสื้อ

The hillstream loaches or river loaches are a family, the Balitoridae,[3] of small fish from South, Southeast and East Asia. The family includes about 202 species. They are sometimes sold as "lizardfish" or (in Germany) "flossensaugers". Many of the species are popular for aquaria, species in the genus Sewellia are most commonly sold in the aquaria trade. They have a number of similarities with the Cobitidae, their sibling family of "loaches", such as multiple barbels around the mouth. They should not be confused with the loricariids, which look similar but are a family of catfish.

Most species are rheophilic, living in swift, clear and well-oxygenated streams. Several species of the family live in fast-flowing streams or torrents and have modified ventral fins used for clinging to rocks.[4]

The subfamily Nemacheilinae has recently been separated as a distinct family, Nemacheilidae (stone loaches) and several genera have been separated into the family Gastromyzontidae.[3]
References

"Dienbienia". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
Randall, Z.S. & Page, L.M. (2015): On the paraphyly of Homaloptera (Teleostei: Balitoridae) and description of a new genus of hillstream loaches from the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa, 3926 (1): 57–86.
Kottelat, M. (2012): Conspectus cobitidum: an inventory of the loaches of the world (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei). Archived 2013-02-11 at the Wayback Machine The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Suppl. No. 26: 1-199.
Banister, K.E. (1998). Paxton, J.R.; Eschmeyer, W.N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-12-547665-5.

Fish Images