thanks menagerie ... I woulda thought I could find an edit profile link when I'm in my profile ... oh well ... what you said worked.
OK, I got a 55 gallon freshwater.
PH=7.4 nitrite=0 nitrate=40 temp=76f The water is sort of soft and everything is well within the safe parameters.
fish = 1 redtail shark, 3 yo-yo loaches, 5 botia (rostrata & angelicus), 1 gold-nugget pleco, 1 rubber nose pleco, 3 gold guaramis, 2 platys, 1 dward neon rainbow, 1 sucker loach
The tank has plenty of plants (java fern, amazon sword, cabomba, vals, myrio, ludwigia) and hiding places (driftwood, rocks, fake/hollow tree stump) ... so I don't think it has to do with the other fish stressing the khuli out, since they largely ignored him when I put him in with the sucker loach and 2 small botia angelicus.
As for his actions ... he initially swam around a bit ... which was different than the last 2 khulis I put in ... they initially went under the first rock they found (fortunately for me, in the front of the tank where I could see them) ... but this khuli kinda looked around a little and mostly sat on the bottom of the tank. About 2 hours later he freaked out and started darting around the tank and swimming in tight circles ... which he then shot up to the top of the tank, out of the water and I assume he hit my glass canopy because he landed in my floating fry tank (which has platy fry in there). Then he stopped and sat still while I gently hand lifted him out of the fry tank. Then he went back to sitting on the bottom of the tank ... apparently acting normal (whatever that means for a khuli). But, when I checked on everyone the next morning, he was dead in the back of the tank under a rock cave.
So, that's as much as I know and I guess I won't mess with khulis anymore ... I'll just add them to my list of neons and shark cats ... both of which I've had zero luck with as well.