Guizhou and Shanghai Join Forces to Farm the Chinese Zebra Loach Artificially, Saving Guizhou's Native Fish

Jinqian Online News: A reporter learned yesterday from the Luodian Fisheries Station that at present, the fisheries departments of Guizhou and Shanghai are jointly conducting experimental research and development on the artificial domestication and breeding of the Chinese zebra loach (Botia zebra), in order to save this rare native aquatic wildlife species of Guizhou in the Pearl River system - the Chinese zebra loach.

The "sesame sword" (scientific name: Chinese zebra loach) has no scales and a body shaped like a sharp sword; it gets its name from the sesame-like spots on its body, lives on the bottom of rivers, and feeds on small aquatic animals. It is mainly distributed in the Pearl River and Yuanjiang River systems, and its flesh is tender and delicious, making it an important commercial fish in its producing areas. Together with the sea bass (Japanese sea perch), the Jiayu (Latin name: Ptychidio jordani, also known as the knobsnout barb), and the mandarin fish (also known as the Chinese perch), it is known as one of the "four famous fish of the Pearl River."

This rare wild animal is produced in Guizhou only in the rivers within Luodian County, which borders Guizhou and Guangxi, and in a stretch of several dozen kilometers of the Hongshui River basin of the Pearl River system. In recent years, due to pollution of the natural ecological environment and relatively serious illegal human fishing, its numbers are now extremely scarce.