Any advice for kuhli loaches

[Purple pickle]

Self explanatory...

[fishorama]

Get a minimum of 6, have at least a 20g with lots of plants & hiding places. I'd also suggest waiting to bring them home until they've been in the lfs at least a week, they don't always ship well. Enjoy!

[Lupin]

:iagree:

[rwilliams254]

Sand bottom... from what I understand, they burrow

[stephcps]

Good luck with them. I bought 3 initially. All they did was hide. Everybody said "you need at least 6". I bought 4 more. They still just hide. I moved them about 4 months ago to my 150. I really thought they were all dead. Did a massive cleaning the other day and they all came out!!

[fishorama]

steph- are you keeping them with larger fish?

[stephcps]

At first they were in a 20 long with some neons and diamond tetras. We would occassionally see them out at night when the lights went out. But slowly they just hid more and more. Now they are in my 150 with discus and angels. My daughter loves them, but ....

[Plague]

Keep the tank well planted. Try not to disturb the tank too much when you do get them. Kuhli's will keep hiding until they are totally convinced that it is safe. Took a month for my guys to come out in the light, even then they stay in the shadows of plants. It is almost like the light melts them =P. I have 5 btw.

[kendrid]

In my experience different batches behaved differently.

My first three would hang out in my plants and at night they'd go nuts all over the tank. They were really cool to watch and I really liked them.

My heater malfunctioned and was stuck 'on' and cooked half of my fish earlier this year. The Kuhlis didn't make it so I bought three more from the same fish store. These three always hide and I almost never see them. The only time I really find them is if I'm moving plants around and I happen to scare one of them. They are pretty lame.

[EOD]

I have one and he hasn't hid under the sand yet. I just moved him over from a gravel tank because I figured he would like the sand more. He's very active and one of my favorite fish. I plan on buying him friends but my tank is 77 degrees and I hear they dont like water that warm. Opinions?

[FallenAngel]

EOD it is a dojo loach isn't it?

[James0816]

Definately what all have said above. Also, get an actinic light for night time. Turn it on after the normal lights go out and enjoy watching them swim all over the place. They are simply awesome little guys!

[rainbowcharmer]

I somehow still have a Kuhli left in my tank, though I was sure they had all died (I had a massive die-off of all the loaches in my tank - no prior warning, they just all keeled over). Anyhow, somehow one survived and I catch a glimpse of it every once in a while. The LFS has never had them since I purchased these initially a couple years ago, so I've yet to be able to get him friends. Even when he had friends, I never saw the Kuhlis. They seem to be very shy. This tank is heavily planted (a TON of java moss, some crypts, etc). So I'm pretty sure that he spends most of his day in the middle of the java moss. I probably catch sight of him once every 2 or 3 months. Just about the time I'm convinced that he's dead and gone, he'll show up for a few seconds and squirm back under the plants.

*shrugs*