First kuhli loach!

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kcartwright856

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Mar 8, 2012
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I finally got my first kuhli loach! It has a bit of a story to it.

Petco is the only place within reasonable driving distance that carries kuhli loaches, but they only had one when I visited. They submitted an order for another batch (6 to a bag... I'll be taking all of them!) and told me that it should be in the next week, but it never came for some reason. We are trying again for this week, but in the meantime, I asked if the lone kuhli was still at the store. They looked everywhere for him and came to the conclusion that he had been sold, but I got a call today that they found him in their sump! I have to say that this doesn't come as a surprise!

Anyway, I made a little video of him after I acclimated and released him into the tank. Please let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVwIfw0-m1Y
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Aww, so cute! He'll love all the plants. A couple of mine used to hang in the floating plants all the time. Freaked me out the first few times but we got used to each other so I could even reach in & they'd stay or casually swim away.

It's nice petco has the striped kuhlis, petsmart used get the black but they're not as pretty. I hope they can get more for you soon.

:topic: my late mother-in-law was from Millersburg & some of her siblings retired there after living in Philly. I've never been but it sounded nice...except for no fish stores, lol.
 

mykidsmylife

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Aug 26, 2005
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He's adorable! I love my khulis. I have 5 in a 125 and you would think I would never see them but they are the "fun" part of my tank. One of them swims up about mid-level of the tank and drapes itself over some of the anachris all the time. We love them.

It's fun when guest come over and will notice one. If they aren't "fish people" they will always say "You know you got a worm in your tank?".

Congrats on your new guy. Hopefully he will have friends soon but if not your tank looks fabulous and is much better than a sump any day!
 

dirtydawg10

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Sep 5, 2005
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Congrats on your first kuhli. They are fun fish. I had one that I was sure was dead because I hadn't seen it in a month or so. One day I looked and it was in the tank looking like it hadn't eaten in a month. It must have gotten stuck in one of its hiding spots and couldn't get out until it was skinny enough...lol...it was a fatty. It was also my cat's favorite fish.
 

kcartwright856

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Thanks so much, everyone! I'll get some pictures of the whole tank soon. I'm really hoping that he'll love it here. If the rest of my kuhli loaches don't come in tomorrow like they are supposed to, I'll go nuts!

my late mother-in-law was from Millersburg & some of her siblings retired there after living in Philly. I've never been but it sounded nice...except for no fish stores, lol.
That's awesome! I love it here, but yes... we've got pretty much nothing! I have to drive into the city to find what I need for the tank, or order online.
 

kcartwright856

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He's adorable! I love my khulis. I have 5 in a 125 and you would think I would never see them but they are the "fun" part of my tank. One of them swims up about mid-level of the tank and drapes itself over some of the anachris all the time. We love them.

It's fun when guest come over and will notice one. If they aren't "fish people" they will always say "You know you got a worm in your tank?".

Congrats on your new guy. Hopefully he will have friends soon but if not your tank looks fabulous and is much better than a sump any day!
Bwahaha! My sister-in-law said he looks like a worm!

Yours sound great! I hope that mine feel that comfortable in their home. And thanks for the compliment. I hope to get a picture/video of the entire tank soon so that everyone can see the whole deal and all of the cool hiding spots!
 

kcartwright856

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Congrats on your first kuhli. They are fun fish. I had one that I was sure was dead because I hadn't seen it in a month or so. One day I looked and it was in the tank looking like it hadn't eaten in a month. It must have gotten stuck in one of its hiding spots and couldn't get out until it was skinny enough...lol...it was a fatty. It was also my cat's favorite fish.
Oh, poor thing!
 

kcartwright856

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Hey, guys!

So, the rest of my kuhli loaches finally came in yesterday! Since they knew I was coming to take all of them home, they didn't want to take them out of their shipping bag, acclimate them to their tanks, and then fish them out for me to take and acclimate them to my tank. So, I just drove to the city to pick the bag up and got them home as fast as I could to get them out of there.

I knew that one of them just didn't look quite right. He was swimming differently than the others and kept flipping over. After I got them acclimated, I placed all of the loaches directly into the tank except for the one. I put him in a breeder box on the tank so that I could keep an eye on him. I was prepared to get the clove oil out to put the poor thing down, but he eventually stopped flipping over and seemed to be acting normally. I didn't want to euthanize him if he had a chance, so I released him into the tank so that he could find a place to hide and hopefully recover.

I should have known better. I have been preparing for deaths because I know that kuhli loaches do not ship well at all. I just hope the poor thing didn't suffer too badly. I found him dead this morning, clinging to the sponge that I have covering the filter intake.


Anyway... the rest of them seem perfectly happy! They are having fun scouting out all of the hiding places. This "batch" is a bit bigger than my first kuhli, but they also look a bit different. My first little guy is definitely a P. kuhlii by the looks of him, but I'm just not so sure about these new ones. They don't quite look like P. myersi either. Any thoughts?

The first picture is from last night after they were acclimated. The second is from this morning. Excuse the bubbles on the water wisteria. I had just done my weekly water change, so the tank was covered in bubbles. They really love that water wisteria, though!





And they really love water changes, which agrees with what I've heard about the kuhli loaches. They even danced for me! I wasn't expecting them to be so playful and feeling at home after being in the tank for a mere 24 hours. I made a video of it. One of my cats helped!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c05mAhzkeFM
 
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