Are My Khuli's Breeding?

[pinkwillow]

Hello, im Katy and im new, i have a bit of an issue, i have 2 khuli loaches and i heard its hard for them to breed in aquariums. One of mine is a normal size and weight but the other one is very heavy on the underside with what looks like tiny eggs inside of it. They look sort of yellow and like tiny dots, its been like this for a few weeks and shows no sign of problem or disease, its quite plump is this normal?

 

[nashnut]

Her belly should have a greenish tint to it.

 

[pinkwillow]

yes it does, like a pale yellowish/green tint, is that normal?

 

[nashnut]

http/www.loaches.com/species_pages/kuhli_eggs.html

Check out that page and the picture.

 

[pinkwillow]

yep thats what she looks like, not quite as big as that but she is on the path to look like that
Thanks for ur help!

 

[mikev]

Congradulations!

Could you post a pic and tell us about your tank conditions?

(Getting a khuli pregnant is on my to-do list...)

 

[nashnut]

Lucky you. There's nothing near here so I mail ordered some.
The first batch arrived with one DOA and two others which died within a couple hours
The next batch from another place was returned by the PO
The third batch arrived in bad condition and died shortly afterwards... one as I opened his bag
The fourth batch arrived looking great but two died immediately and within two days they developed a fungus and are dying one by one now.

 

[mikev]

Lucky you. There's nothing near here so I mail ordered some.
,,,,,

If you really want them (and alive), why not travel to NYC -- not impossibly far...?


BTW, there is something repeating about khuli dying after transportation. Several times I saw large batches in local lfs' and a few days later half of them were dead (I am forcing myself not to buy fish unless I observed it for a few days in lfs...a little safer this way).

 

[nashnut]

Who has them in NYC?
I was thinking about that... it's a trip and expensive but it
might be worth it.

 

[mikev]

Who has them in NYC?
I was thinking about that... it's a trip and expensive but it
might be worth it.

Call H2O Aquarium at 718 424 8823, ask for Kevin (if you want mention Michael as the source).
This is on Queens Blvd (84-08), if you are driving it is just off LIE.

I am nearly certain he still has black ones, if you want "normal", very likely he reordered.
He also has striped loaches (Botia lecontei)..these are not exactly khulis, but fairly similar, and they coexist with khulis ok.

So far every fish I got from him is alive.

The other option is PetLand, calling every store in Queens will likely net you some. (Petland hint: they get shipments on Thursdays, so I would not buy on Th.-Sat....)

Good luck.

How is your mail order experience otherwise? (there are a couple of fishes I want that I see only in mail orders...)

 

[nashnut]

I hate to say it but for me it's probably cheaper to purchase them by mail. It would cost me twice what I paid for shipping alone just to get in there. I'm talking about express shipping!!!

I think buying by mail varies from shipper to shipper. It's a trial and error thing. If you use Aquabid, read all the feedback and check out the forums before buying. I personally think they are better than buying from actual places. I bought one kuhli shipment and the water actual stunk. That was from one of the "big" companies that ship fish. It sure made me very leary about buying anymore fish from them. They, of course, made good on the dead fish but still....

If you are interested in different stuff, check out this [email protected]
He sells on AquaBid but is slowly getting a group together where he offers items both regular and unusual. He gets shipments in about twice a month and there's some wild stuff included.

I buy and actually ship a lot of bettas and they are a lot easier than regular tropical fish. I don't know much about shipping tropicals but would think that on a high strung fish like kuhlis that a bag buddies tablet might help. I personally don't use it on my fish when shipping but have seen the results and it might be worth looking into.

 

[pinkwillow]

unfortunatly i cannot get a picture of one because i have black gravel and they live under a bridge, i will keep trying! i dont want to move their hide out just yet. I havent actually done anything special to the Khulis, i have a 20 litre tank with a good filter, they live under a bridge and theres quite a few fish in there which are all peaceful, i change the water 25% every week with a gravel clean. I only noticed a month or so ago that one was quite plump on the underside with tiny dots inside, i will let you know if i actually see any eggs or anything!

 

[mikev]

Obviously, don't bother them if you don't have to..but it is my understanding that they will eat the eggs if given a chance, so you may want to watch carefully.

What are the water params in your tank? Live plants?

(I'm actually cycling a 10g tank right now to set it up as a khuli breeding environment, so anything you want to mention about your tank would be of great interest....and any suggestions from anyone here are more than welcome)

Best of luck.

 

[pinkwillow]

well my tank is a hexagonal one, which is 20 litres it was originally set up for goldfish but they kept dying, so i bought a heater and left it for a couple of weeks with nothing in it. It has the temperature set to 26C and i have 2 live plants in there. I bought 4 neon tetras to start off with then built it up to 2 guppies, 3 gouramis, 2 more guppies, then the 2 khulis and a frog then 2 corys. Thats it really i dont do water testing so i couldn't tell you any more detail than that really.
The problem is the Khulis are inside the bridge and i dont think any eggs have been laid, i dont want to pick up the bridge and shake it because it will stress them and probably wreck the eggs. What should i do?