Will Full Grown Peacock Eels Eat Black Kuhli Loaches?

[Starfishpower]

I have a little four inch eel right now, soon to get him a buddy or two hopefully, and i have some black kuhli loaches. obviously they're fine right now but i want to make sure theyll be ok with each other when they grown up, particularly since Im preparing to move them all together into a 50 gal. as a permenant residence. I dont want to have to catch the kuhlis in a year or two and relocate them later, theyre really hard to catch! and i plan on it being a heavily planted tank decorated with plenty of bogwood.... i dont want to have to remove all of that just to keep them from being food when i could have just gotten them their own home to begin with. any and all help on this will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lateral Line]

I think you'd get a more accurate answer to the eating question in Oddballs. It is my understanding that the eels lie buried and grab anything that passes by, bearing in mind the shape of the loaches, I'd guess if they can fit in their mouths then they will eat them.

My other observation is whenever I have seen these eels, they do bury themselves, and generally turn the substrate over. I certainly wouldn't want them in my planted tanks, I can imagine the mess they'd make.

 

[Colin_T]

they should be fine together. Peacock or spiny nose eels don't get that big and khuli loaches get fatter with age. The eels prefer small foods like bloodworms and small worms.
They will both be fine in a planted tank too. In fact they will probably breed in a well planted tank. We had some years ago in a plant tank and you never saw them. But one day the tank got pulled apart and there were the original adults plus a dozen young.
A good way to catch khulis is to have a length of PVC pipe in the tank. One end is covered with fish net. The khulis hide in the pipe and you simply lift it out. It works on black ghost knife fish and elephant nose too.