"Gordon" newsin_at_hgp.nildram.co.uk wrote:

SNIP Greets and specs

Hello, and welcome back to the hobby.

So now the full population of fishes is:
2 x Bronze Corydoras
2 x Peppered Corydoras
1 x Striped Dora
1 x Golden Loach

I think I can hear you all murmurring what is a Golden Loach and what is a
Striped Dora? Sorry guys, I can't help, this is what the LFS told me they
were and as yet I have been unable to ID them through the Internet. The
Dora is similar to the Chocolate Dora, except where the stripe on the
Choc, ends at the junction of the tail and the tail then has a vertical
stripe, Mine doesn't it continues through the tail horizontally. Obvious
he is quite ellusive so getting a really good look at him is a bit
difficult. Maybe someone here knows more about this. The same with Loach,
I haven't been able to ID him either. He is a long bodied loach completely
golden in colour even his fins and has the usual sucker mouth of an algae
eater. He has been extremely busy and so is hardly ever still. He seems
very aloof and although is not intimidated by anything, it's more like he
does give a sh*t about them rather! He really only scoots out of the way
of the Dora, when he is out, although during the day goes right into the
Doras cave to clean up! I may have to dig out the digital camera and see
if I can get some decent photos of these guys.

The sites I have searched so far for these two a

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/
http://www.fishprofiles.com/
http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/
http://www.loaches.com/index.html

Well, I did a little searching, and I've come up with some possibilities.

For the golden loach, does it look more like the golden zebra loach
http://www.loaches.com/species_pages...cilliaris.html or the
golden colour morph of the weather or dojo loach
http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/wloach.html
http://www.loaches.com/species_pages...icaudatus.html (check
through the pages for pictures of the golden morph).

For the dora, I did some searching and found a pictu
http://www.aquascape.co.uk/picture.html (about halfway down the page) which
looks exceedingly similar to the striped raphael catfish
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...ydor/166_f.php although
it might be a Orinocodoras eigenmanni
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...ocod/612_f.php as noted
on the planetcatfish page for the raphael. The dora name seems to be
referring to the family name of doradidae, so it may be that your shopkeep
was able to identify up to family and was unsure from there.

This weekend I plan to add a few middle and top dwellers to balance things
out a bit! (That's if I can stop my wife from falling for all these
catfish!

The trick that works for me is boredom. If I prattle on about about my
fish, plants, tank, design plan, etc. in great detail and at great length,
she eventually gives up, sighs, and says those four magic words:

"Whatever you'd like dear".

Anyhow, I now have RSI and you have all gone to sleep already, so I will
stop prattling on and say thanks for a great resource, I am pleased to
know that you guys (and gals!) are there in a time of need and who knows
maybe one day I will be able to help one of you too.

Keep it safe

Gordon.

I hope I was somewhat helpful, once again, welcome back to the hobby. It's
always nice to see new faces.

Jeff