Ghatsa is a small genus of loaches endemic to India, with all 3 atlas species - including the Anamalai loach (G. montana) - restricted to hill-stream habitats associated with the Western Ghats, the mountain range the genus is named for. As with other small loaches from this region, they are benthic fish adapted to cool, well-oxygenated, fast-flowing streams, using a sucker-like mouth to graze algae and pick invertebrates from stone and gravel substrate.
Ghatsa species stay small, around 3 in, and have essentially no presence in the aquarium trade - they are known mainly from regional ichthyological survey work rather than commercial collection or hobbyist accounts. Conservation data are mixed and partly incomplete: one species is assessed Least Concern, one Data Deficient and one not yet evaluated, which is typical for narrow-range Western Ghats endemics that have only recently been formally described and studied.