Paramisgurnus is a genus of mud loaches in family Cobitidae, closely allied to the true weather loaches (Misgurnus) and sharing their eel-like, heavily built body and long barbels around a downturned mouth. The atlas's two species are found across China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, in the slow, silty rivers, canals, and paddy-adjacent wetlands typical of the group. They run larger than most loaches, from about 6 in up to 8.5 in, and like their Misgurnus relatives they are equipped to gulp air at the surface and pass it through the gut, letting them survive in warm, low-oxygen water that would suffocate many other fish.
Paramisgurnus dabryanus, the Chinese golden loach, is the better-known of the two - a hardy, burrowing bottom-dweller that turns up in the food trade and occasionally the aquarium hobby, tolerant of a wide range of water conditions the way weather loaches generally are. Paramisgurnus nahangensis is far less documented. Both species are currently Not Evaluated for conservation status, leaving their population trends an open question despite heavy habitat pressure across much of their range from agriculture and water management.