Some other traits typically found in this family are a small bottom-facing mouth suited to their scavenging benthic lifestyle, an erectile spine below the eye, and a single row of pharyngeal (throat) teeth.

Many live in eutrophic waters of generally poor quality and feed on tubifex worms and similar benthos associated with such habitat.

[5] Other true loaches, many of them migratory fish, have been seriously affected by habitat destruction, chemical pollution, and damming, and are considered threatened species today.

Some migratory species are popular aquarium fish and since they are very hard to raise in captivity, overfishing has seriously depleted once-common stocks in several cases.

Finally, the puzzling mountain carps were most often considered the distinct family Psilorhynchidae in recent times.

[7] Cobitidae has the following genera classified within it:[8] Some true loaches are popular as food fish in East Asian countries such as Japan.