Khuli loaches dying

[Plecopottimus]

I havent posted in awhile...I am finally settled into my new place and have my new tank up and running.

Okay so heres the tank
72 gallon bow front mature, cycled, fake and real plants lots of hiding spots
Fluval canister filter
small air stone (3 inchs long)

Fish in tank
6 angels
3 Cory cats
2 large snails (size of quarters)
3 very small snail (hitch hikers from plants)
1 3 inch long Pleco

Originally I wanted Dojo loaches but couldnt find any around my area As it turned out I stumbled upon Khuli loaches and I love them They look like little water snakes because their fins are so transparent. I bought three about an inch and a half long each. After acclimating them I let them in and they immidiately started to explore and find their own little hiding spots. All was fine for about a week and a half then one showed up floating. The other two looked fine and normally active...in another two days another showed up floating and finally i found the last one today. He seemed to survive about a whole week longer then the last one that perished. None of the other fish seem to have issues and all are accounted for. The only thing I can figure is they didnt have enough food? The angel fish are little pigs so maybe not enough food reached the bottom? thoughts?

 

[a1wonder]

my khuli only comes out after the dark and the lights go off in the room so I always drop an algey tablet in before I go to bed at night so they get some too.

but having them all drop dead in less than a week makes me think this is not a feeding issue and perhapes they might have picked somthing up like an interal bug. With the movement from one tank and the trip home creates alot of stress for these little guys so if a bugs going to happen it's going to be within their high stress time.

 

[nino]

could be a water issue. the guy at my LFS said that they don't stock kuhlies because they never seem to live very long here... so who knows?

 

[Erised]

I cant really recommend buying any kuhli loaches right now. Simply because most are not as healthy as we'd like to think they are, and because they're very expensive right now. There's a disease going around kuhli loaches in the wild which kills a lot of them (specially the giant kuhli loaches), most of them die around day 10 of coming into the country ... this might just be what killed yours. If the pet shop only just got them in when you bought them, it might very well be that.

 

[sylvia]

I can't say what killed your loaches but I'd suggest that next time you buy any from your LFS you wait to see which ones survive the longest in the LFS and get these as they will be the toughest and most likely to survive and even thrive without disease. This, BTW, applies to any fish - not just khulies.

 

[Plecopottimus]

so they eat algea discs? like a pleco? I am pretty sure they didnt starve then because I put thos in every night for my pleco and there is always some there left in the morning I just hate losing the little guys they were so fun to watch. I guess I'll have to try again

 

[Teelie]

I have 5 which I've had for 2-3 months now and they're all doing fine. I was damned lucky to find them though as they were the only ones in stock in the area that were alive long enough to sell. It's definitely a import issue as they're dying in just about every shop. A few places get lucky and have a healthy shipment like the PetCo I got mine from. My other LFS has been trying to get them but they die within days of aquiring them.

FYI, I have sand, live and fake plants, a hollow decoration and keep the lights on only where the live plants are. The fake plants are all low-lying ones like fry grass that allows them to take cover and hide safely without stressing out. They're also alone except for a black apple snail and a smaller snail of some sort who snuck in.

Mine were only a $1.25 too. One of the cheapest fish I've ever bought.

 

[Morrgan]

so they eat algea discs? like a pleco?

No, kuhli loaches eat small invertebrates. They don't eat algae or other veggie foods. Mine enjoy regular staple tablets, shrimp pellets and different frozen foods.

 

[Teelie]

They do actually eat the algae wafers. I have a mix of different foods I feed all my fish and the Khulis have no problems with algae.

 

[sylvia]

In the wild they are carnivorous. They NEED meaty foods and will not be healthy fed on algae or plant matter without a main diet of live/frozen meaty foods. Just cause they will eat it doesn't mean it's good or beneficial for them. Take some cichlids and bloodworms or, if you preffer, dogs and chocolate for an example.

 

[Teelie]

Uh, I do. I said I feed my fish a variety of foods, including frozen bloodworms. Almost all my fish are ominvorus so I feed them everything. The algae wafer is mostly for the snail in there but the Khulis go after it too.