📸 PhotoPhoto: MaiMend · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Chinese muddy loach
Misgurnus dabryanus (Chinese muddy loach · カラドジョウ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its maximum weight of 58 g is similar to a single egg (about 60 g) (Comparison).
- 💡 Because it begins mating on rainy days when rice paddies fill with water, it is commonly encountered in paddies and irrigation canals (National List of Species of Korea).
- 💡 FishBase notes that it is farmed commercially.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Chinese muddy loach is a freshwater fish with a slender, elongated body and barbels around its mouth, living in muddy bottoms of lower river reaches, rice paddies, and irrigation canals. It occurs throughout Korea.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body is slender, elongated, and laterally compressed, while its head is flattened from top to bottom. It has 3 pairs of barbels around the mouth and secretes mucus from its body surface. Females are larger than males, and it can breathe air when necessary.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It is omnivorous. Its spawning season is April–June; when rain fills rice paddies with water, mating begins and the male wraps around the female's body to help her release eggs.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
It is listed on the National List of Species of Korea and is distributed nationwide.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2023) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/219316721/219316895
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 4D3G7
- • iucnredlist.org — 219316895
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000057668 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000057668
- • wikidata.org — Q6406596
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Paramisgusnus dabryanus Dabry de Thiersant, 1872.png
- • fishbase.se — Misgurnus-dabryanus.html
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.