[header] How to take care of botia fish [title] Monitor for illnesses. [step] Loaches, having almost no scales, tend to acquire illnesses easily. There are two primary diseases that afflict botia. 
[substeps] The first is known as ich (short for ichthyophthirius), a disease caused by a parasite that results in small white speckles across the surface of the fish. The second illness is known as skinny disease.