Kuhli Loaches

[nashnut]

I just got in a batch of mixed kuhli and black kuhli loaches. I see that two of them are racing around the tank and going up to the surface - back and forth. This happened with another order wherein they died one by one. Is this a normal action for them? The balance are acting more normally hiding and peaking out of spots. The tank has load of hiding places.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yeah, they go loopy sometimes. It seems to be when it been raining, or is going to rain.

 

[Bloo]

I have one that does the same every now and again - it just goes nuts and races allround the tank. While the other just rest peacefully

 

[nashnut]

Hopefully that's the case. I'd hate to lose another batch. They really look good.

It topped 10 inches of rain in the past three days and is coming down like mad again right now. I don't know what else it could be. It's a tank set up for them with java fern, ricci, a plastic cave, two porclein hollow logs, regular gravel and fine white sand for burying themselves in. There's one snail in the tank. The water tests fine 0-0-10

I just dropped a wafer in and two stopped in mid rush to eat.

 

[Bloo]

nope mine does it every other day. It rains a lot here in the UK, but not THAT much. I think it's "normal" for some to act like that

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yeah, but mine tend to be especially active when its raining. Sometimes I feel like shouting 'Go back and hide, have you never read the manual of how to be a khuli?'. LOL, i prefer them hiding than active TBH. I also find black khulis far less timid, I have one and he's almost always out. Hopefully he'll be more so when I get him some buddies

 

[nashnut]

They've settled down a bit. Some are still racing around but when I turned on the lights several shot into hiding instead of sitting around. Lost one regular kuhli and one black kuhli last night. I was surprised with the black kuhli but the regular kuhli acted just a tad bit lethargic when he arrived yesterday. One small Otto in the shipment didn't make it yesterday but again he too did not look all that good when I got him. He was in with a bigger one and I think might have been injured. The other three look fine and active. They are in another tank from the kuhlis.

 

[Teelie]

When I first got mine, there were two of them actively swimming in the tank at PetCo but since then they've only done it a few times and one was when their filter had stopped running over night. None of them died, but it was interesting that one came out to swim around like that when the filter was off. Maybe they do it when their oxygen levels are low or they're stressed.

 

[Bloo]

My Oxygen levels are super high at the moment (with my plants pearling madly pretty much non stop) so it's definitely not that

 

[nashnut]

I think the little devils are enjoying swimming in the filter output. They go round and round in a circle about 8 inches wide. If I shut the filter down, they stop and lay on the bottom.

 

[Teelie]

Mine are the opposite. I have plenty of current I can give them but they don't seem to care for it and hide. It's when there was no current and lower oxygen that one came out and knowing the way PetCo likely has their tanks set up, they probably weren't in the best maintained water. Whatever the secret is to getting them active, I haven't found it yet. I doubt poor water quality is the answer though.

 

[nashnut]

It's the same three doing the swimming. Two blacks and one regular kuhli. The worse part of their hiding is that you really don't know if you've lost any!!

Is there any problem in feeding them the freeze dried tubifex? I've got the small blocks I was thinking about dropping in. They seem to like the pellets.

Thought I had lost another one this morning until I went to net him. Boy they sure can move!!

 

[Teelie]

They're almost certainly alive and you can use the freeze-dried worms but first let them soak in some water before feeding the worms. They're freeze dried so they contain virtually no water at all. Once they get wet, they tend to "grow" larger and expand as they absorb water. Not a good thing to have happen inside the belly of your fish if they eat too much. Reminds me of the holocaust Family Guy episode where Peter eats a bunch of year's worth of rations then drinks a glass of water.

 

[mikev]

It's the same three doing the swimming.

In my tank some seem to be much more into swimming than others. It *seems* that the shorter (younger?) ones swim more. And yes, they seem to swim more before rain and melafix (?!) seems to make them swim too.

(I moved mine to a bigger tank a few days ago; because of melafix all nine were swimming and it was possible to net them without taking the tank apart...).

Two blacks and one regular kuhli. The worse part of their hiding is that you really don't know if you've lost any!!

Drop shrimp pellets near the hiding places, they likely will come out.

Is there any problem in feeding them the freeze dried tubifex? I've got the small blocks I was thinking about dropping in. They seem to like the pellets.

I'm not sure they like tubifex -- I tried this and they were not impressed.

They surely do like flakes -- if you can drop them to the bottom. Watching them eating from a big flake is fun.

----

The strange thing on my end is that the black kind are supposed to be more outgoing -- almost everyone says this -- but I'm seeing the opposite.

 

[nashnut]

They seem to be settling down now. There are three that enjoy swimming like nuts near the sponge filter. If you stop the filter, they stop so I would assume that it's the current that they are playing in. Two of the kuhlis and three of the black kuhlis are usually in sight. The balance hides. I love seeing the little kuhli face peering out of the hole in the log.

I put a couple frozen blood worms in the tank yesterday and the entire worm disappeared in short order. I'm not sure who got them. They really seem to like both the pellets and the shrimp pellets and make short order of them.

You can see one up in the corner bubble riding and one in front of the log. I am waiting for some pygmy swords to plant in the open area.