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Kuhli loach caresheet
OK, am trying to collect information for would-be kulhi owners to read before getting their fish. Here's what I've got from my very limited experience with them (only had them 3 weeks!), so please add posts that I can include on the subject.
Here is what we got so far:
What types there are (notes from Butterfly, aka Carol)
The striped kuhlis are Pangio kuhli and the solid colored kuhlis commonly called black kuhlis are Pangio javancus .
There are about ten of the different Pangio species that are shaped like the commonly seen striped or black kuhlis, just colored up differently and collected from different sites. Some of them are really hard to tell apart (have to count stripes, shape of stripes, do they meet under the chin, what color is the belly and how close do the stripes come toward meeting over the belly etc.) so it's ok to lump them together as Pangio kuhli.
Just addressing the striped and black kuhli:
The commonly seen striped are Pangio kuhli and the "ideal" pH is 6.2 to 6.8 and temp 78 to 82 F.
The commonly seen black kuhlis are Pangio javanicus and "ideal" pH is 6.4 to 7.0 and temp 77 to 80F.
I have happily kept both in pH of 7.2 to 7.8 and temps of 70 to 78F and never had a problem. i did notice they were more active in the warmer temps.
You'll love them for
... their unusual shape
... their striking colours (black and yellow stripes)
... that they're great cleaners!
.... (most of all), that they're such hyperactive, funny clowns They'll just dart around for hours and hours and hours, and then suddenly stop and rest. They're always trying to squeeze in stupidly tight spaces, to our great entertainment! They're really cheeky to our otos and continuously bump into them, head first and at full speed, for some dark and unknown reason. The otos seem to ignore that, so all is well. Apart from that, our kuhlis seem pretty good tank mates. They pretty much ignore (and are being ignored) by their other tank mates.
My ad-hoc recommendations:
... I'd advise sand as substrate, although they seem to thrive in other types of substrate. They seem to loooove sand. They'll burrow through it at high speed, and spit out sand from their gills.
... Do cover your filter outtakes (we did ours with a torn piece of panty hose), as they WILL try to swim against current into them, risking... decapitation!
... Watch out for sharp edged decoration. With their habit of squeezing between stuff, they might end up with bad scratches, as one of ours had.
... Please take minimum 3 if you want kuhlis. Ours are always buddying up and resting on top of each other, completely intertwined.
... Try to get them lots and lots and lots of dark, tight and small, hiding places. Mini ceramic jars scattered around the tank are ideal for them. You'd be surprised how tight they like their hiding places to be!
... They are great bottom cleaners for left-overs but do keep your nitrates/nitrites/ammonia very very very low.
... Watch what kind of kuhli you get. Some will get to 5cm, while others will get to 10cm, and it takes a trained eye to tell some of them apart.
... They loooove a good air bubble curtain (just a air wand. Basically, a long airstone.)
.... They looooove strong current.
Our specific setup if you're interested for comparison's sake:
Tank mates: We've got 3 kuhlis in a 13G, with 2 dwarf puffers, a leopard pleco, 2 zebra otos and a couple of amano shrimps.
Temperature: coolish (25C?). I don't know if that's ideal but they certainly seem to be doing OK in that temperature.
pH: 8.0 (out of the tap ). Don't know that that's ideal for them, but all we know is that they seem OK with it.
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