Taxonomy & naming
Tuberoschistura cambodgiensis was described by the Swiss ichthyologist Maurice Kottelat in 1990, placing it in the genus Tuberoschistura, one of the many stone-loach genera carved out of the old wastebasket genus Nemacheilus/Noemacheilus as the family Nemacheilidae was progressively revised through the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) lists it as a valid species with Kottelat, 1990 as authority, and it sits in the family Nemacheilidae, the stone and brook loaches — by far the largest of the loach families, with many genera erected to sort what used to be lumped together as "Nemacheilus" species.
The genus name references a tuberculate ornamentation seen in some of its congeners, combined with a nod to the older Schistura, itself another major stone-loach genus split from Nemacheilus. The species epithet cambodgiensis simply means "of Cambodia," naming the country of the type locality. It is distinguished from its closest congener, T. baenzigeri, by fin-ray and anus-position counts — a reminder that many nemacheilid species are separated by fine anatomical detail rather than obvious external differences.
Morphology
This is a small, slender stone loach, reported to reach only about 1.5 in in standard length — among the smaller members of an already small-bodied family. The colour pattern is understated: a nearly white to pale background marked with a few large, dark spots, rather than the dense barring or mottling seen in some related genera. Meristic detail from the original description notes 12 and a half branched dorsal rays (versus 9 to 10 and a half in T. baenzigeri) and an anus positioned beneath dorsal rays 6 to 7 — the kind of precise counting that separates similar-looking nemacheilid species in the hand.
As in other true loaches, the body carries the family's characteristic near-scaleless skin and, in many nemacheilids, a small erectile spine below the eye used defensively and to anchor the fish against current; specific documentation of the spine in this species is not available in the sources reviewed here, but the feature is typical of the family and worth assuming present when handling any stone loach. Beyond the diagnostic counts and coloration recorded in the description, detailed morphological data for this species is sparse.
Habitat
Tuberoschistura cambodgiensis is native to the Mekong basin in Cambodia, with its type locality in streams draining toward Tonle Sap Lake, the great seasonal floodplain lake at the heart of the Cambodian Mekong system. It lives in sandy-bottomed streams with slow to moderate current — a somewhat gentler habitat than the fast riffle water many stone loaches occupy, though still a running-water, well-oxygenated stream environment rather than still or stagnant water.
The wider Tonle Sap–Mekong drainage is subject to a dramatic seasonal flood pulse, and the surrounding landscape faces ongoing pressure from logging, deforestation and agricultural expansion, though the species' 2011 IUCN assessment found no evidence this has translated into a measurable population decline. Precise water chemistry data (pH, hardness) for the species' native streams is not recorded in the sources available.
Feeding
As a small nemacheilid stone loach, Tuberoschistura cambodgiensis is presumed to be a benthic micro-predator in the manner typical of its family, picking small aquatic invertebrates — insect larvae, tiny crustaceans and similar prey — from sand and detritus on the streambed. No species-specific dietary study is available in the sources reviewed, so this should be read as a reasonable inference from its family and habitat rather than a directly documented account.
In a hypothetical aquarium setting, small stone loaches of this kind are generally fed sinking foods such as small live or frozen invertebrates (bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp) and high-quality sinking pellets or wafers sized for a small mouth; they typically show little interest in flake left floating at the surface.
Mating
No sexual dimorphism, courtship behaviour or spawning cues have been documented for this species in the sources available. Stone loaches of this type are not known to pair-bond or show conspicuous external differences between the sexes, and given how little has been published on this species beyond its original taxonomic description, this section is necessarily brief rather than speculative.
Breeding
There is no record of Tuberoschistura cambodgiensis being bred in captivity. Stone and brook loaches (Nemacheilidae) as a group are typically egg-scatterers that release eggs over gravel or sand in flowing water with no parental care, and this species should be assumed to follow that pattern absent evidence otherwise. Reliable home aquarium spawning of small nemacheilids in general is rare, and this particular species — poorly documented even in the wild — has no known aquarium breeding history at all.
In the aquarium
Tuberoschistura cambodgiensis is not an established aquarium species; it does not appear to be regularly traded, and dedicated husbandry accounts for it are not available. What can be said comes from its family and habitat: this is a small (around 1.5 in), stream-dwelling loach that would need clean, well-oxygenated, flowing water over a soft sandy substrate, without the fast torrent-strength flow that hillstream specialists demand, given its native streams are described as having only slow to moderate current.
As with virtually all true loaches, the skin is thin and largely scaleless, so any keeper attempting to house this species should treat it as medication-sensitive — using half-strength doses and avoiding copper-based treatments — and should watch closely for ich, to which scaleless loaches are notably prone. Given the near-total absence of aquarium data, anyone keeping this species should treat it as an experimental, specialist proposition rather than a documented, established one.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assessed Tuberoschistura cambodgiensis as Least Concern in 2011, citing its wide geographic range within the Mekong basin despite ongoing logging, deforestation and agricultural pressure in the region. It has not been reported to be significantly affected by the aquarium trade, which does not appear to draw on this species in any meaningful volume.
As with many small, poorly known Mekong-basin fishes, the main long-term risks are habitat-driven — land-use change, water development and the broader ecological pressures facing the Tonle Sap–Mekong system — rather than any documented trade-driven decline specific to this species.