Taxonomy & naming
Mustura celata was described by the Swiss ichthyologist Maurice Kottelat in 2018, in a paper that simultaneously erected the new genus Mustura to hold it: "Mustura celata, a new genus and species of loaches from northern Myanmar, and an overview of Physoschistura and related taxa (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)," published in Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 28: 289–314. M. celata is the type species of Mustura, meaning the genus was built around this fish and its distinguishing features.
The species belongs to Nemacheilidae, the stone loach family — by far the largest and most species-rich family of loaches, encompassing hundreds of small, similar-looking freshwater fishes across Eurasia. Kottelat separated Mustura from the superficially similar genus Physoschistura and related nemacheilid genera on the basis of internal anatomy rather than obvious external features, which is typical of this taxonomically difficult family. As a species named in 2018, it has not accumulated synonyms or older combinations; the current, and only, combination is Mustura celata.
Morphology
Mustura celata is a small nemacheilid loach patterned with 6–10 (usually 7) irregular dark blotches or bars along the flank, alternating with darker saddle markings across the back — a broken, camouflage-like pattern typical of stream-bed stone loaches. The caudal fin carries 9+8 branched rays and the dorsal fin about 8½ branched rays; the lateral line runs complete along the body. The caudal peduncle is moderately deep, its depth running 1.3–1.7 times its length. Males have a pectoral fin held at a distinctive upward slant, a feature used to help distinguish the sexes.
The genus Mustura itself is diagnosed by a wide unculiferous pad bearing small conical tubercles, an air bladder with two capsules joined by a connecting manubrium, and a lower lip with a wide median interruption — internal and fine anatomical characters visible only on close examination or dissection, consistent with how closely stone loaches in this region resemble one another externally. Like other nemacheilids it is a small, elongate, near-scaleless fish built for gripping the bottom in fast water; a precise maximum size has not been located in the sources reviewed.
Habitat
The species is known from small tributary streams feeding Lake Indawgyi, a large freshwater lake in Kachin State, northern Myanmar, and appears to be a narrow-range endemic of that drainage. As with most nemacheilid stone loaches, it is a bottom-dwelling fish of clear, flowing streams rather than the lake itself, favouring the kind of cool-to-moderate, well-oxygenated, gravel- and stone-bottomed water typical of the family across South and Southeast Asia.
Detailed water-chemistry and temperature data for this specific species were not found in the sources consulted, and given its very recent description and narrow known range, that gap likely reflects a genuine absence of published field measurements rather than an oversight. It should be treated as a data-sparse, small-stream endemic until further study fills in the specifics.
Feeding
No diet-specific data for Mustura celata were found in the sources reviewed. Its family placement is nonetheless informative: nemacheilid stone loaches are overwhelmingly bottom-foraging micro-predators, working the substrate of clear streams for small aquatic invertebrates such as insect larvae and tiny crustaceans rather than grazing algae or biofilm.
Without direct observation of this species, its diet is inferred from its relatives rather than confirmed; any aquarium care based on that inference should offer small sinking live, frozen or prepared foods rather than assume it will take flake from the surface.
Mating
No information on courtship, sexual behaviour, or spawning triggers for Mustura celata was found in the sources reviewed. The one relevant detail from the original description is morphological rather than behavioural: males carry a pectoral fin angled distinctly upward compared to females, a feature likely useful for field sexing but not documented as connected to any particular courtship display.
Given how recently the species was described and how little has been published on it since, essentially nothing is known of its reproductive behaviour in the wild, and nothing has been recorded from captivity.
Breeding
Mustura celata has no documented aquarium breeding history. Like other stone and brook loaches in Nemacheilidae, the expected pattern — based on the family generally rather than on any direct observation of this species — is an egg-scatterer that releases eggs over gravel or among stones in fast-flowing water, with no parental care afterward.
Breeding data for this species is essentially absent from the literature reviewed, which is unsurprising for a fish described in 2018 from a single small drainage and apparently unknown in the hobby. It should be assumed, honestly, that this species is not bred in captivity.
In the aquarium
Mustura celata does not appear to be established in the aquarium trade; the sources reviewed found no dedicated care profile, no trade history, and no common name in use. Any care regime would have to be extrapolated from its family: nemacheilid stone loaches from fast, clear streams generally do best in cool-to-moderate, highly oxygenated water with a gravel or stone substrate and strong flow, and — like most loaches — are essentially scaleless and correspondingly sensitive to copper-based medications and full-strength treatments.
Because no verified tank data exists for this species specifically, that guidance should be treated as a starting point drawn from its relatives, not a confirmed care sheet. A keeper encountering this fish should assume it needs cool, clean, fast-moving, well-oxygenated water and should medicate cautiously, at reduced strength, as a general precaution for a scaleless loach.
Conservation
Mustura celata has not been assessed on the IUCN Red List and is recorded here as Not Evaluated. Its recent description (2018) and its apparent restriction to small tributary streams of a single lake system — Lake Indawgyi in northern Myanmar — mean it is exactly the kind of narrow-range stream endemic that often goes unassessed for years after discovery, not necessarily one that is safe.
No information on population trend, direct threats, or trade pressure was found in the sources reviewed. Lake Indawgyi and its watershed face general pressures common to northern Myanmar freshwater systems — agricultural expansion and land-use change in the catchment — but no source specific to this species' conservation status was located, so no claim beyond Not Evaluated is made here.