Description: They have a light brown body with three distinct dark brown bands across their backs (saddle), where they get their common name. A dark line runs from the mouth, through the eye towards the back of the fish, and another dark line runs from the eye to the lower gill plate. H. orthogoniata can be told apart from all congeners by the following unique combination of characters: dorsal surface of body always with 3 large, saddle-shaped markings, the first posterior to the head, second covering the base of the dorsal-fin, and third between the dorsal-fin and caudal-fin which usually continuous laterally to origin of anal-fin. The base of the caudal-fin is dark brown. They have an incredibly sensitive sense of smell that detects food in the tank and they go frenzy when find the food. Saddle-back Loach do not like the high water temperatures. Because of its special needs, Homaloptera orthogoniata is not a good choise for a community tank, rather a biotope aquarium should be arranged for the fish with species inhabiting similar environments (Danios, Hillstream loaches).

Sources:
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/22877
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/homaloptera-orthogoniata/
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/homaloptera-orthogoniata