RonDutt

So I recently got some driftwood with plants from the LFS, and somehow got a 2.5in loach as a hitchiker! There was barely any water but out came the loach when everything was in place. The bugger is pretty fast so I don't have any pictures, but he/she looks like a banana loach except brown (like dark chocolate) all over...no markings of any kind. I would return him (tank is well under its bio-load limit) but he's sooo amazing! The bugger swims all over the tank at times, other times he's burrowing all over the gravel, other times I see his head sticking out the very bottom of the tank (inside the gravel). Freaks me out as I move in to see what it is and BAM out comes a snake like thing lol

mathas

Until you can get a picture for people to ID, you might want to start here and see if you can narrow it down at all:

http://www.loaches.com/species-index...shape-pictures

Gouramiguy17

Sounds like a kuhli loach, they can be dark brown, can burrow into gravel very well and swim very fast, also they can survive in very little water too

eiginh

If it is a kuhli, you can keep him! They don't get as big as other loaches and their bio-load isn't as much as the others as well.

RonDutt

Ah, thanks for the link mathas, went through pretty much all the ones that even remotely matched the description. It seems to be this: http://www.loaches.com/species-index...cf-anguillaris

I'd have to get home and double check though.

eiginh

Wow lucky you! A free cool hitch hiker! Hopefully he is healthy!

Jaysee

I agree that it's a kuhli loach. They are far more interesting and don't hide nearly as much when kept in a group. I'd say they school like corys. A group of 4 or 5 would be nice.

RonDutt

I decided to move him to my older tank with sand substrate...the one he was in was gravel and he kept trying to burrow into parts that he couldn't. How many can a 20g support? Right now I have some albino catfish and couple shrimp in there.

eiginh

You can go with a couple or 3 more. Don't get too many they might breed!