Khuli Loach?

[Jaded_Pulse]

Hey everyone, long time no visit!

First order of business: I've been offline for a while, so hi to everyone, especially all the newbies out there! *waves*

On topic - I've been progressively setting up a new tank, and got a khuli loach for it yesterday. Only problem is, I'm not sure it's a khuli loach, lol. He (or she) was the only one left in my (very good & reputable) LFS, and was hiding in a tank right up the top, so I didn't get to see him before he got bagged, and just assumed he *was* indeed a khuli. So I got him home, acclimatised him, and inspected him whilst in the bag. Very dark in colour, slightly paler belly, but very little evidence of the yellow stripes...well, he must just be able to change colours when stressed. Released him, & he surfaced this morning from under a pile of big stones I'd put in for him, and he's *still* not showing the infamous stripes - a little bit of the pale belly extends *slightly* onto the body in a few places, but I can only see it if I look closely. I know he's probably still a bit stressed out, but really - shouldn't he have stripes If he's not a khuli, any ideas of what he might be? I've looked up the index here & can't see anything like him, & I don't have a camera working to take a pic for posting. He's maybe 2.5" long, very dark in colour, maybe the really normal dark purple kind of colour (it's a bit hard to tell, because he's been hiding lots, lol). Soooooo.........any ideas, anyone??

Sorry this is so long, hope it made sense!
gumbles

 

[corykitty516]

I've got 3 kulhis that have no stripes. I think they are called black kulhis but they arent really black. Mine are sort of pinkish/brownish/purpleish. Black kulhis are supposed to be rare but I cant even find the striped ones around here. I'd like to have some striped ones.

 

[SirMinion]

This one of our normal khulis:

But they can also be found with no yellow (black khulis) or no black (golden khulis).
These are manmade colour morphs created by selective breeding and although still quite hard to find, are becoming more common.

If is doesn't sound like either of these, is it possible that it could be a weather (dojo) loach? They're similar in appearance, but get a LOT bigger.

 

[corykitty516]

here is a bad fuzzy pic of my kulhi but you can see the color

 

[The-Wolf]

like hillstream loaches there are many varieties of this fish
I suspect you have Black Kuhli (Pangio javanicus)

here is a list of all other Khulie loaches
Acanthophthalmus (Pangio) mysersi
Acanthophthalmus fasciatus
Acanthophthalmus kuhlii
Pangio kuhlii
Pangio mysersi
---- Pangio mariarum
---- Pangio muraeniformis
---- Pangio oblonga (was Pangio pangia)
---- Pangio pangia (now Pangio oblonga)
---- Parabotia fasciata
---- Parabotia banarescui
Parabotia lijiangensis
Parabotia maculosa
---- Paramisgurnus dabryanus
---- Parhomaloptera microstoma
---- Protomyzon sp.
---- Protomyzon whiteheadi
---- Pseudogastromyzon cheni

HTH

 

[LoachLover]

Looks like the Black Kuhli to me

 

[Jaded_Pulse]

Wow, thanks a million, everyone. I think I do indeed have a black khuli - looks fairly well like the pic that The-Wolf posted (thanks for the pics). I was worried it'd turn out to be a dojo loach, but I do trust my LFS, so it's a khuli unless it gets too big, lol. Thanks for the pics, some nice looking fishies there If I can find one, I'm going to give him a striped friend, too, because I've been reading here that they like company. BTW, anybody know if khulis eat snail eggs/baby snails? Because I have 2 small (like, 1cm diameter) apple snails in that tank temporarily - an who knew they could mate while still so little?! lol