Paracanthocobitis is a genus of small stream loaches in the true-loach family Nemacheilidae, commonly called zipper loaches for the dashed or broken lateral stripe running down many species' flanks. Found across South and Southeast Asia, the atlas draws records from India, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, and Pakistan. Like most nemacheilids, they are small, elongate bottom-dwellers of clear, well-oxygenated hill streams and rivers, with a cylindrical body, a sub-terminal mouth suited to picking invertebrates and algae off rock and gravel, and much of the scaleless or lightly scaled skin typical of the family. The genus was carved out of the older, broader Acanthocobitis/Nemacheilus complex as loach taxonomy was revised. The atlas covers 20 species, adult sizes roughly 1–6 in.
Mostly of scientific rather than mainstream hobby interest, Paracanthocobitis rarely appears in general fish stores, but a handful of species such as P. botia (mottled loach) and the various zipper-loach forms turn up among dedicated stream-loach and biotope keepers drawn to their patterning and active foraging. In the aquarium they want cool to moderate, well-oxygenated water with a current, a sand or fine-gravel substrate, and a varied diet of small live or frozen invertebrates plus algae wafers, and generally do best kept in groups. Conservation status is poorly resolved for most of the genus: the atlas's IUCN tally is heavily Not Evaluated, with only two species assessed as Least Concern and one as Endangered, so range and threat data are sparse across the group rather than pointing to a broad crisis.