The emperor loach, Botia udomritthiruji, is a small freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 native to Southeastern Burma. The maximum size is about 3 in (7.8 cm). Their maximum size is 11.5 cm and the female's abdomen plumper than the abdomen of the male.

This fish species was was first caught about 1993 and was identified only relatively recently. It lives in the Tenasserim Hills

Tenasserim Hills

Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range is the geographical name of a mountain chain in Southeast Asia. Despite their relatively scant altitude these mountains form an effective barrier between Thailand and Burma in their northern and central region, extending to the Kra Isthmus into the Malay...

, in the upper Great Tenasserim River

Great Tenasserim River

Great Tenasserim River or the Tanintharyi River is a major river of southeastern Burma. It flows through the Tanintharyi Region, past the town of Tanintharyi before entering the sea at Myeik . The river rises from the Tenasserim Range at an altitude of and flows into the Andaman Sea...

 drainage area. It was named after Thai aquarist and fish exporter Kamphol Udomritthiruj.

Emperor loaches are peaceful fish suitable to community aquarium

Aquarium

An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

 tanks. However, they are difficult to obtain because of the inaccessibility of the areas where they live, in the Tenasserim range forests where there are almost no roads and where trails are infested by leech

Leech

Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. Like other oligochaetes such as earthworms, leeches share a clitellum and are hermaphrodites. Nevertheless, they differ from other oligochaetes in significant ways...

es. Unfortunately the area where they live is subject to heavy deforestation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....

 owing to illegal logging

Illegal logging

Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission or from a protected area; the cutting of protected species; or the...

operations. Formerly there was also insurgency in this section of the hills.