Genus · Loaches

Ellopostoma

Ellopostoma is a genus with 2 species in this atlas, catalogued in the Loaches section, recorded from Indonesia and Malaysia. Adult sizes run from 2 in to 3 in. Every species below links to a full researched profile.

Species in atlas
2
Adult sizes
2–3 in
IUCN assessed
2 of 2 · 1 threatened
Recorded from
2 countries

About the genus

Ellopostoma is a small, poorly known genus of freshwater fish from Southeast Asian peat-swamp and blackwater forest streams in Malaysia and Indonesia, usually placed in its own family, Ellopostomatidae, within the broader loach superfamily Cobitoidea rather than in the mainstream loach families. Its two species, Ellopostoma megalomycter and Ellopostoma mystax, have an elongated, faintly eel-like body and a scaleless head, and, like many blackwater specialists, they inhabit tannin-stained, structurally complex habitat among submerged wood and leaf litter where the water runs soft and acidic.

Ellopostoma is rarely, if ever, encountered in the general aquarium trade; peat-swamp fish of this kind mostly reach hobbyists, when they appear at all, through blackwater-biotope specialist importers rather than mainstream suppliers, and detailed husbandry information for the genus is sparse. One of the two species carries a Vulnerable IUCN listing, consistent with the wider conservation concern facing Southeast Asian peat-swamp forest habitat, much of which has been drained or logged for agriculture in recent decades.

IUCN Red List: Vulnerable · 1 Not Evaluated · 1

The 2 species

Every Ellopostoma recorded in this atlas. Each card links to a full researched profile — distribution, water parameters, and aquarium care, cited to primary sources.

(Vaillant, 1902)

2 in SL · VU

Tan & Lim, 2002

3 in TL · NE

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How to cite

Aquarist Atlas (2026). Genus Ellopostoma. Aquarist Atlas. https://www.aquaristatlas.com/ellopostoma/

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