Description: Oriental Weather Loach is a foodfish in its original habitat, and this may account for the wide distribution in Asia. This is a coldwater fish, but is so highly adaptable that have succeeded in colonizing parts of many warmer countries in different continents. Its high reproductive potential have made it a cause for concern to conservation scientists although as yet there remains no proof of it exerting a negative effect on native fishes in countries outside its natural range.

The body of the fish is eel-like with a small mouth. They can vary in color from yellow to light brown. Their patterns can also vary, some of them have greenish-brown spots on their body creating a marbling pattern, some of them are plain without any pattern. A "golden" variety is available with dark eyes, plus very occasionally true albinos are seen. They have are five pairs of barbels around the mouth. The common name is derived from a reported sensitivity to changes in barometric pressure which cause it to become more active, therefore in China they were kept in containers as weather predictors. Historically this is may be one of the longest kept species of fish. This loach has a special ability to swallow atmospheric air and pass it through the gut, extracting oxygen internally, so it can survive poor conditions, it has been reported that they can live up to three days out of water. Its close relative the European weather loach (Misgurnus fossilis) has the same ability to forecast weather changes due to its activity patterns changing when air pressure rises or falls.

Mature females have fuller body particularly when full of eggs, and are a little larger than males, while in mature males the pectoral fins are enlarged with a thickened second ray and also exhibit horizontal "swellings" on the body behind the dorsal fin which are clearly visible when the fish are viewed from above.

There are no reports about their aquarium breeding, but in nature, the fish spawn during the wet season during flooding, where the male wraps himself around the female and fertilize the eggs which are settle in the substrate. Post-hatching the fry have external gill filaments which disappear after 10-12 days. On Hokkaido Island, Japan there exists a population that reproduces by parthenogenesis, and this all-female group lays eggs that don't require male fertilisation to develop, but with the requirement that the sperm of a closely-related species is necessary to induce egg development. Scientists have shown that even the presence of Goldfish (Carassius auratus) sperm is sufficient to produce a good number of viable eggs. This phenomenon is also known in some European Cobitis species.

Sources:
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/3016
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/misgurnus-anguillicaudatus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond_loach
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/weather-loach-misgurnis-anguillicaudatus
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/loaches/DojoLoach.php