Kuhli Loach Questions

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t0ny84

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 19, 2018
Messages
18
Hi,

I am looking at possibly getting some Kuhli Loaches and wanted to get some input about having them in a tank with no substrate? I would be putting in some decorations for them to hide in.

Also what size tank would be recommended for 5 of them.

Lastly slightly off topic has anyone made caves etc from terracotta pots and PVC pipes?
Just wondering how you treated them to put in the tank.
Any difference if it's just a pot in the tank or if it has been drilled / broken?

Thanks

Anthony
 
I have 20 kuhlis in my 29..They hide in the plants and driftwood mostly.
I use terra cotta in many of my breeding tanks for breeding trays and hard scape.
I just rinse or soak them before use to make sure they are clean.
I have never had trouble using them.
I crack pots in half or poke a hole in the side and place them upside down...

I would think BB is safe but probably not what they want the most.
I have lots of BB tanks and fish for the most part adjust..
You might want to paint the bottom of tank...
 
Thanks for the feedback. One question though what is BB? ?
 
I have kuhli’s and they love wiggling around on the substrate. In plants and caves. I couldn’t imagine them on a bare bottom.
 
@coralbandit - ah �� thought similar to this. I have had gravel before but found it an absolute pain to clean and never found the gravel vac sufficient.

Hoping to setup a planted tank once my goldfish pass on or if I can find another nice (aka cheap) tank...

Would be putting in some caves and hidey holes for them.
What size tank do you have TMaier?
 
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Be ready for a lot of hiding. Mine only come out when the lights go out. Any other time you wouldn’t even know they were in your tank.
 
I have 5 right now in a 20 tall.
Would have more but i have plans for other fish so i'm holding off on adding to my initial group until i decide on the final number of other fish. Most people recommend a 20 long though, saying that since theyre bottom dwellers that they'd appreciate more length. Mine however have never used the length of the tank to swim back and forth like my old dojo loaches did. They mostly just do loops up the right hand side, circling the corner filter i have there. Loop loop loop all day long. These are my 3 black kuhlis, who are always out visible and active. I've never not seen any of them, they are always out, being the stars of the circus. I wouldnt normally have gotten only 3 but that's all the store had at the time. The lack of a large group hasnt hindered these guys in any way, they have never been the least bit shy, since the minute they went in the tank theyve been bold little clowns.
So I originally got 5 striped ones too, to try to create a decent sized mixed group at least.- so far from them: one died in the first few days. One has hidden under the driftwood constantly since i got him. A second one just finally reappeared about a week ago. One of those two this week has recently started venturing out with the black ones - not looping, but hanging out in their "landing area" so they swoop by him. The other two striped ones i havent seen since day one. If they died, i havent found a body. Not in the filters. I've done pretty thorough vacuuming several times but nobody has been stirred up. So hopefully thpse two are just chilling in the sand somewhere. But i've kind of stopped counting them. But if you are counting those absentees, i have 7 in a 20 tall. The way my crowd behaves, i would easily have physical room for twice that. I'm only waiting on filling out theur group because of potential bioload of other fish.
Although the striped ones are finally starting to come out of their shell a little bit, its taken almost 2 months.
Because of this, and from my own experiences of having had black kuhlis in past years, and now this batch, so far i prefer the black ones to the striped ones for activity and entertainment.
 
So I have also not long set up my tank and I would love some of these guys in it. I have tall silk plants and sand bottom, plenty bog wood and stacked stones into a cave like shape. It's a 180ltr tank so could get a couple of them.
 
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