Egg Laden Kuhli

[charlie d]

Hi. Just joined the forum today & am after any info on egg laden kuhli loaches.
Did my usual water change this morning & saw that one of my kuhli loaches seems to carrying eggs. She is quite large & looks lumpy rather than the usual shape, her underside is also green which as I understand it means she has eggs. I know that it's unusual for them to breed in a home situation but has anyone here managed it or does anyone know what I should do if she does spawn? I would be really chuffed if I could pull this off. I have often seen my tetras scatter thier eggs but to have little kuhlis would be wonderful.

 

[mikev]

Congradulations!

(No personal experience in this yet, but I've been collecting info on exactly this).

Your two main problems are the tankmates (which will eat the eggs) and water hardness (which -- if high -- will prevent them from developing).

Your best bet is probably to isolate her together with a couple of likely males in a small tank and ensure that gH there is low. An article on loaches.com quotes gH<11 as a requirement, but 11 may be too high.

good luck! --- please let us know what happened.

 

[charlie d]

mikev
Have checked the gh in my tank & its 16, water is very hard in this area. All the kuhlis in that tank are in hiding today under the bogwood. I dont have another tank to move them to at the moment. I guess it was wishful thinking that I might get babies. Oh well maybe another time.

 

[mikev]

mikev
Have checked the gh in my tank & its 16, water is very hard in this area. All the kuhlis in that tank are in hiding today under the bogwood. I dont have another tank to move them to at the moment.

Actually, this may not be a big problem. In this area pet chainstore sells a "starter 10g kit" for $20. This is exactly what you want for the purpose, perhaps there is a similar deal around you. You can set it up in 1-2 days.

Now, if you use 50% changes with distilled (R/O) water from your local supermarket, your gH will drop to 8, which just may be good enough (thanks to TheWolf for the idea).

I guess it was wishful thinking that I might get babies. Oh well maybe another time.

Your problems are solvable, unlike mine: I also have a greenbelly female (whose belly is greenish but strangely not lumpy (yet?)), there is a tank with two males waiting for her, and I cannot catch her. !@#^&!

 

[nashnut]

How can you tell the males from the females aside from the green underside?

 

[mikev]

How can you tell the males from the females aside from the green underside?

You really cannot, but since green underside seems to correlate with fatness, it is reasonable to assume that most of the fatter khulis are females.

Generally, in cyprinids, females would have larger chests; in a khuli the chest is looong.

Among the khulis I had for a while, they all got fatter, and about half of them got *much fatter*. I assume the latter to be mostly females. For recently bought khulis, no way to even guess.



The question which bugs me is what makes the females produce eggs (green underside is not common). Likely, being for a while in a stable environment is a big factor, but what else?