Parabotia is a genus of loaches in the family Botiidae, the same family as the well-known clown loaches, native to East Asia — the atlas's species come from China, Vietnam, and Russia. They are elongated, barbelled bottom-dwellers typical of botiid loaches, generally banded or blotched in pattern, and range from small stream fish up to a fairly substantial 8.5 in in the largest atlas species. Most inhabit flowing rivers and streams rather than still water, foraging along the substrate for small invertebrates. The atlas covers 13 species.
Parabotia is far less familiar to aquarists than its Botia and Yasuhikotakia relatives, and only a couple of its species turn up in the hobby with any regularity, among them the banded loach (Parabotia fasciatus) and the Japanese loach (P. curtus). Like other botiids, they are social, active fish best kept in groups rather than alone. Conservation data for the genus are patchy — data deficient is the single largest category in the atlas's tally — and one atlas species is listed as critically endangered, a reminder that several East Asian river systems the genus depends on face heavy human pressure.