How Often Do You See Your Khuli Loach(s)?

[Genesis]

How often do you see your khuli loach(s)?

i havent seen either of my 2 for over a week, is this normal? i heard they are very evasive when kept less than 4, im getting 2 or 3 more when i get back from holiday in January

the tank is a 50 gal Jewel Rio 180

should i be worried?

i have a fluval 204 running, and the internal jewel filter

 

[Teelie]

I only see mine at night, with all the lights out except the ones in their tank and even then usually only see one or two unless it's feeding time then usually four of the five are easy to spot. The fifth one is somewhat more scared.

 

[penguinpimp1990]

they like to bury in the sand, and are shy when kept in small groups of 4 or less. If they are kept in a large group they are otherwise very social. Theyre are probally just hiding

 

[mikev]

How often do you see your khuli loach(s)?

See most of them all the time in my 65g (9 striped and 6 black there); see two in my 10g all the time.
(both tanks have hiding places including some I cannot see in.)

Khulis sometimes need time to settle and decide that the tank is safe; if you had them for less than a month, and the tank has other fish, hiding is reasonable. More hiding places will make them feel safer.



PS. Never saw them hiding in sand. In large gravel -- yes, and if this is what you have, you will see less of them.

 

[Bre_B]

well i have 4 BLACK khulis, but they like to do the hide and seek thing too... so yeah, im responding haha

3 of mine i see all the time, but the fourth one disappeared for amonth, then when redoing my tank with sand, i found him! So dont worry about it, im sure he's around there somewhere!

 

[specks]

My sons kuhli loaches hide most of the time but mine are always out & about in the tank even though I made them a nice cosy cave. They always come to the front of the tank when its feeding time.

 

[osteoporoosi]

I see mine every day during feeding

 

[OohFeeshy]

Every day, but only a max of about 5 at a time The black khuli I see every day, the rest can occasionally require a bit of 'riight, theres one by that rock, theres another under that rock'... About half live in the rocks, a third under the wood and the rest out in the open.

 

[nashnut]

I have one 10 gallon tank with three regular kuhlis and two black kuhlis. I see the regular kuhlis all the time. They love to explore. The two black kuhlis are a different story. I rarely see them anymore unless I am feeding them. They have doubled in size though so I would assume everything's fine. The tank is for them only.

I have another tank with 8 black kuhlis and 3 Yo Yo's in it. I again see the black kuhlis most of the time either just laying on the gravel or working around. You can always see at least 4 when you look. The tank have a bunch of hiding places so they are never more than a couple inches away. I took a bridge and turned it upside down and they love going in and out of the spans.

It's quite common in the second tank to see this.....

 

[mikev]

The above picture should be saved somewhere for posterity. Maybe in the fish index?
---

On khuli moods: now I really don't understand them. I finally got a few more (this time the lfs has a healthy shipment) so that now three of my tanks have khulis, and they behave totally differently in different tanks. All tanks have hiding places/bogwood.

In the 65g (with many other fish to compete with) they are totally relaxed, and I can see most of them most of the time, but they would not risk much swimming.
In the 29g they (these are the new ones) are hiding and scared (which may be the *new khuli fears*) and at best I see a couple of tails and faces from under the bogwood. The dominant fish in the tank are small barbs that steal khulis food....I just hope they find something to eat at night...

But the really crazy thing is happening in a 10g which 2 khulis share with 5 small rasboras (<1"). The khulis are very active, they do not try to hide, and they swim a lot (makes me think that something may be wrong, but all the params are ok). And it is the rasboras that are hiding under plants, coming out only for food and rushing back immediately. I don't know what these two khulis did to them to keep them so scared, but one rasbora's death is likely connected to khulis...something scared it enough to jump out through the food hole in the middle of the night....

What this may mean is that khulis behave quite differently if they feel they own the tank, like these two.

I think I'll experiment a bit next week: move a shy khuli to the 10g and see how long it takes for it to become bossy and obnoxious.

 

[nashnut]

The black kuhlis with the Yo Yo and Clown loaches are very active all the time. However, activity in my 10 gallon tank with three regular kuhlis and two black kuhlis has slowed down. I can only think that it's because the tank next to it has babies in it and gets a lot of traffic.

 

[mikev]

I should really stop buying khulis ) this is becoming a bad addiction....

My lfs allows me to net the fish I like myself, and when he gets a hundred (you should see a knot of a hundred khulis in a 10g...), there will be a pattern I cannot resist... This time the unusual pattern is a khuli with totally black spine, stripes are on the sides only...If he ever comes out of bogwood, I'll post the pic.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yeah, I'm addicted tot he darn things too Once I've upgraded to a 35g I'd imagine I'll have, like, 10 ZDs, something biggish, and 30 odd khulis... Or if I get really bored, I'll divide them up into striped, myers, etc... I beleive I may have one true khuli, but I'm not sure.

 

[mikev]

beleive I may have one true khuli, but I'm not sure.

enuf to make me envious. I've not seen true khuli in lfs' yet. I'd love to have a couple one day, just to compare the behavior...

my most prized possession is Albert (a hypomelanistic myers below...) the #2 is a khuli without stomach (the markings go all the way around him...donno if it is a myers or some other species, but he nests with the rest of myers, so possibly he is.)