Hotoke loach
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The hotoke loach has barbels that developed from its nostrils.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Hotoke loach
- Scientific name
- Lefua echigonia
- Japanese name
- ホトケドジョウ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Cypriniformes
- Family
- Balitoridae
- Genus
- Lefua
Where the name “Hotoke loach” comes from
The scientific name "echigonia" refers to Nagaoka in Niigata, where the species' type specimen came from. A theory says "hotoke" refers to its blunt snout and face, which recall a Buddha.
新潟市水族館 マリンピア日本海栃木県なかがわ水遊園Because it prefers clean water, it is sometimes used as a sign of how clean the water is.
How the Hotoke loach lives
It mainly eats small animals that live on the bottom. Its spawning season runs from spring into early summer. Males follow a female as she lays eggs on water plants and similar surfaces.
京都府Basic data
- Range
- Honshu except Aomori and western Chugoku, and Shikoku
- Conservation status in Japan
- Endangered (EN)Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020
Where the Hotoke loach has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ホトケドジョウ
- 简体中文
- 斑北鳅
- 繁體中文
- 斑北鰍
- Русский
- Японский восьмиусый голец
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ホトケドジョウChecked: 2026-11-04
- 新潟市水族館 マリンピア日本海 — ホトケドジョウChecked: 2026-11-07
- 京都府 — ホトケドジョウChecked: 2026-11-07
- 栃木県なかがわ水遊園 — ホトケドジョウChecked: 2026-11-07
- Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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