Schistura madhavai
Schistura madhavai is a species of ray-finned fish in the stone loach genus Schistura. It was described in 2017 from Sri Lanka and is the second Schistura loach known from the country, the other being Schistura notostigma.
The species name madhavai honors Prof. Madhava Meegaskumbura, a Sri Lankan taxonomist who mentored the researcher Hiranya Sudasinghe, who described the species.
Identification: Schistura madhavai has 8 to 9 wide brown bars behind the dorsal fin, a black bar on the tail, an incomplete lateral line, a pelvic fin that marginally reaches the anal fin, and it lacks an axillary pelvic lobe.
Habitat and location: It was found in a small stream in Suriyakanda, in a two-meter-wide area. The stream flows through a tea plantation in hill country at about 1,000 meters above sea level.
Sri Lankan loaches: This species is the fifth loach described from Sri Lanka. Other Sri Lankan loaches include the Sri Lanka banded mountain loach Schistura notostigma and the tiger loach Paracanthocobitis urophthalma; the remaining two Sri Lankan loaches belong to the Cobitidae family, the true loaches.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:52 (CET).