the fish, a bottom feeder, is found in the salween river system which is mostly in myanmar. it was first discovered in ataran river (known in thailand as kasat river), a tributary of salween river. a population in thailand was discovered in early 2006 in another tributary of salween river, suriya river in thungyai naresuan wildlife sanctuary. it grows as large as 15 cm in length, but most tend to be smaller at around 10 cm. it has gold, black, and grey colors arranged in a pattern that varies greatly depending on the age of the fish. juvenile fish at about 2.5 cm are very similar to "botia histrionica". it has yellow body with only black vertical bands. typically around this size grey dots on the black bands together with a middle horizontal bar joining the bands begin to appear. at about 5 cm, the top and bottom part of the vertical bands start to merge, producing a pattern of big yellow ovals along the body. more grey dots continue to appear as fish grows.