Description: Botia kubotai is a more recent arrival to the hobby (discovered in 2002 during an expedition), commonly known as the Polka Dot Loach or Burmese Border Loach. It has been named in honour of Katsuma Kubota, a member of an aquarium export company in Thailand who was the first to find this species and sent them out for identification. Botia kubotai has the classic Botiid loach shape - a long, quite slender, laterally compressed body with a gently curved back and a straight belly. They have a relatively small, underslung mouth which is fringed with 4 pairs of small whiskers: two pairs near the tip of the "nose", one pair on the "chin" and another pair on the corners of its mouth. The tail is deeply forked and marked with a series of dark bars and blotches, as are all their fins. Burmese Border Loach is very variable in pattern and can change quite dramatically as it grows. Their patterning is made up of yellow spotted horizontal black stripes that are interspersed with yellow spotted vertical bars. Generally, the dark areas gradually increase in size as the fish matures, and there is lots of variation in the size and number of yellow spots. Polka-Dot Loach can thrive in a wide range of water parameters, although softer and more acidic water is generally preferred. When kept in a small group, they become bolder and often rise into midwater at meal times. In common with other scaleless or small-scaled fish, they are susceptible to ich and other skin parasites and are very sensitive to the medications used to treat it. Just below each eye these loaches have a suborbital spine, which can be extended in defence or sometimes used as a weapon against rivals. Fishkeepers need to be aware of this when netting the fish as they can become entangled or inflict a nasty cut if poorly handled.

Mature females have fuller body with a rounded snout, while adult males have elongated snouts with noticeably fleshier lips.

There are no reports about their breeding habits.

Sources:
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/botia-kubotai.html
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/botia-kubotai/
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-kubotai
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/loaches/BurmeseBorderLoach.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_border_loach
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/articles/polka-dot-loach-botia-kubotai
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile87.html
Practical Fishkeeping 2017.03