Is my loach pregnant??? I'm a noob, and need help!

[Odder]

I have a pair of kuhli loaches. They look pretty similar, but based on my research I deduced one was male, and one was female. The female has always been plumper. I don't see them much anymore - since they are currently the only fish in my 13 gallon tank, I keep the light low, and they have plenty of hideys. I was cleaning out the tank, saw them, and went "Oh no."
The female looks as thick as a tree trunk in the midsection. Her belly is a little pale. She looks healthy otherwise - rich color, healthy skin (scales?) and swims and eats fine. The male looks like a pencil compared to her, though.
Am I right? Is she expecting?
Or am I going to soon be left with one lonely little dude?
I've had them for almost 3 years now, and they've never had babies.
Help! I am not the most knowledgeable about fish.

 

[Odder]

I have a pair of kuhli loaches. They look pretty similar, but based on my research I deduced one was male, and one was female. The female has always been plumper. I don't see them much anymore - since they are currently the only fish in my 13 gallon tank, I keep the light low, and they have plenty of hideys. I was cleaning out the tank, saw them, and went "Oh no."
The female looks as thick as a tree trunk in the midsection. Her belly is a little pale. She looks healthy otherwise - rich color, healthy skin (scales?) and swims and eats fine. The male looks like a pencil compared to her, though.
Am I right? Is she expecting?
Or am I going to soon be left with one lonely little dude?
I've had them for almost 3 years now, and they've never had babies.
Help! I am not the most knowledgeable about fish.

Also, if she is pregnant, what do I do Like, how do I prepare for it?

 

[Odder]

Please help.

 

[Odder]

I assume she will lay eggs.

 

[UnknownFishies]

Do you have any pictures? Those would help.

 

[Dephea]

As far as I know it's not easy to breed them but if you kept them happy then there is a chance you will get babies. Kuhli Loaches reach sexual maturity at 2 years old so not having little babies sooner does make sense. Females will get really chunky!

I don't own Kuhlis yet but apparently they do require dimmed light and plants (ideally floating but not sure how accurate that info is). They use plants to lay eggs.

What's you'r pH?

Are you live feeding? It's known to trigger spawning in fish.

Oh and if you see eggs (bright green so check your plants properly) remove the dad. He can and will eat eggs and fry Eggs will hatch in about 24 hours.

My guess is you can feed the fry with Infusoria or brine shrimp, as with majorty of other fish fry really.

 

[Odder]

I don't live feed. I feed them different things every now and then. I have little veggie tablets they love, and normal fish flakes. I really am a noob. I keep them as happy as I can.
I didn't realize that they were fish who liked live food. I can totally try to get them some live food. We have a fish shop near us.

 

[Odder]

As far as I know it's not easy to breed them but if you kept them happy then there is a chance you will get babies. Kuhli Loaches reach sexual maturity at 2 years old so not having little babies sooner does make sense. Females will get really chunky!

I don't own Kuhlis yet but apparently they do require dimmed light and plants (ideally floating but not sure how accurate that info is). They use plants to lay eggs.

What's you'r pH?

Are you live feeding? It's known to trigger spawning in fish.

Oh and if you see eggs (bright green so check your plants properly) remove the dad. He can and will eat eggs and fry Eggs will hatch in about 24 hours.

My guess is you can feed the fry with Infusoria or brine shrimp, as with majorty of other fish fry really.

I have some silk plants. I tried a few live plants recently, but they all died. Turned brown and broke apart. I have a bright tank light, and mostly-ok water quality, though it could be better.

 

[FF_Member146894]

i don't know anything about kuhli loach breeding, but for the people who do, a photo will help a lot.
as for the live plants, perhaps you bought some of the more demanding ones. try anubias - no matter what the conditions, i've never seen a dead one before.

 

[Odder]

I pulled out a lot of plants when my last few fish died, and it was down to just the loaches.
If anyone is interested in my tank history...

Spoiler: Tank history

I had a 7-year old cardinal tetra. She originally had a school of 4 with her, but outlived all of them. She finally passed (seemingly peacefully? Can a fish pass peacefully?) a few months ago. She was missing an eye, too. Lost it in an incident with a plastic plant, which I immediately disposed of.
I had 2 female guppies, who were besties, named Aurora and Eclipse. Eclipse had a yellow and black splashed tal, while Aurora's was shades of coral, yellow, and cobalt. Aurora was gorgeous for a female. Eclipse (I got her as a juvenile, so she was around 3 at the time? )got weaker and weaker over the course of a week, though there was nothing visibly wrong with her. She passed. Aurora had a terribly crooked spine that I researched furiously to find out the cause of, but came up with next to nothing, since after it had developed, she went on to outlive Eclipse and passed away kinda out-of-the-blue at a little past 4 years old.
I had a cherry barb. His name was Carmine. He was convinced my beloved guppy girls were females of his own species, and harassed them to the point where there were chunks out of their fins and they hid behind the heater all the time. He went back to the fish store.
There was a neon tetra who was hot pink. I named him Dazzle. He (or she?) was a lovely fish. Lived a long time too. I found him stuck to the intake valve one morning with a hole in his chest. No idea what that was about.
There's been others over the years, but those were the important ones.
Now it's just the loaches, Sunstone and Tiger's-eye.
I plan on getting more fish, but I need to work on my water quality. The loaches are fine, but I need to clean more often. I'm doing my best. I have been trying to clean the tank every week.
Oh, and I have an ongoing population of tiny snails. Tiny, see-through, round-shelled snails. They keep the walls clean of algae.

 

[Odder]

i don't know anything about kuhli loach breeding, but for the people who do, a photo will help a lot.
as for the live plants, perhaps you bought some of the more demanding ones. try anubias - no matter what the conditions, i've never seen a dead one before.

I'll make a trip to the fish store soon!

 

[Odder]

Is this an accurate article? https://be.chewy.com/are-you-ready-for-the-challenge-of-breeding-the-kuhli-loach/

 

[FF_Member146894]

Is this an accurate article? https://be.chewy.com/are-you-ready-for-the-challenge-of-breeding-the-kuhli-loach/

everything is mostly correct except their trick of saying "a 20 gallon tank will be fine for a dozen." that's just a way to get you to buy an aquarium from them. yes, kuhli loaches will be much happier in a dozen, but a 20 gallon tank is not sufficient. something preferably over but at least 40 gallons breeder size would probably be enough - and that's just my best guess considering their bio-load and adult size.

 

[anewbie]

Kuhli do not get 'pregnant' the females will get larger with eggs but there is not much you can do - on very rare occasions there have been reports of them breeding in tanks but it is almost always by accidents. Breeding farms use hormones to trigger breeding not something you want to use. As to tank size - i ahve a dozen in a 120 and another 8 in a 29 and 7 more in another 29. Is the tank large enough? Well bigger is always better as they can be very very active at night but for now that will ahve to do.

 

[coriesinhawaii]

One of my kuhlis is also a lot fatter than the others. S/he’s been fat like that for a couple of years though and I’ve never had any eggs or fry.

Frozen food works well too if you have trouble finding live.