I simply LOVE Kuhlis. As a kid my first Kuhli Loach was named Calvin Kuhlidge. At the time I had a 10G aquarium with some anacharis and a few other plants. Really beginner stuff. Then one day Calvin Kuhlidge disappeared. I looked in the tank but couldn't find him. It was only 10G and there weren't many places to hide, so I sadly assumed he had died. Fast forward a couple weeks and I was stripping down my 10G and upgrading to a 55G someone had given to me. I took my bunch of anacharis out and left it on the table for a bit then set it down in the 55G aquarium. Not ten minutes later I see Calvin swimming around... in the 55G aquarium! I was dumbfounded. How did this little guy switch aquariums!? And then it hit me: he had been hiding in the anacharis all along. Even when I took the anacharis out and laid it on the table he stayed in his little bunch of plants, snug as a loach. The funny thing is that once he was in the larger aquarium he was much more active and I had him for about another 1-1.5years. Sadly, he wasted away at the end, probably from an internal parasite. But I'll never forget the little loach who managed to switch aquariums without my knowing.....
Kuhli Loaches?
- Thread starter JoshM
- Start date
Are you sure those aren't black? I've never heard of brown/chocolate kuhlis, but those black ones are nice as well. I've seen those at PS. For some reason the black seem cheaper than the traditional color variation. I remember reading many years ago that no one had bred kuhlis in captivity yet, but I don't know if that is still true. Would explain the relative rarity and cost.
Great story with the lost kuhli AEWHistory! I've had a few shy small clown loaches do that to me in the past. Never swapping tanks though,lol. One will pull a no show for a while, I finally get fed up, tear the tank apart, & finally find them hiding after i've near panicked & strained my back locating them. Such an amazing feeling finding them after the drama I must say. Love the kuhlis though, like little colorful snakes in the tank
I'm really glad you liked my story. I have another one for you: a couple years ago, when my kids were born, I was tearing my tanks down and selling or giving my stuff away because I wasn't going to have time. In my big tank I had had a pair of red tail loaches (can't recall proper name.... maybe its just red tailed loach) but kept losing them. One day I realized I hadn't seen them in weeks, so I began watching out for them and even taking apart the big tank hoping to see them. At least three times I did what I thought was a thorough enough search that they had nowhere left to hide without tearing the tank down to the gravel. Well, comes the day the big tank is going to come down and I have a guy there to pick up some fish. I show him the different fish I have but I also explained how my red tailed loaches had apparently died as well. Finally, I pull the last, and largest stone out of the center of the tank and out pops the two red tails! I was dumbfounded! They had tunneled UNDER the rock were living there for a few months. In the tank routinely got an assortment of dry foods, black worms, and scuds, so I think they were living off of any live food that were missed during normal feeding times, but they looked in excellent health despite my not figuring them into the feeding routine any longer.
I sort of miss those guys, but then again I rarely saw them and doubt I'd ever buy more. Definitely sounds like the experience you we're dscribing except I actually managed to completely miss them despite searching. I badly underestimated just how well a fish could hide.
I sort of miss those guys, but then again I rarely saw them and doubt I'd ever buy more. Definitely sounds like the experience you we're dscribing except I actually managed to completely miss them despite searching. I badly underestimated just how well a fish could hide.
That's nice to know, thanks for the info. So the black Kuhlis aren't a color variant, they're an entirely different species?
