Tom

I currently have;
1 Male betta(Ralph)
1 Gold Dust platy
5 oto cats
2 Coolie Loach

capekate

Hi Tom
do you have a photo of the coollie loach? Since its in a 10g tank do they stay small?

Tom

No, sorry, it is just too fast and hides under either the wood or the clay pots that are in there. It has almost doubled in size since I got it a few months ago.
Tom

Stradius011

You could go to myfishtank.net and they have a brief profile about it with a good picture. They stay at around 4 inches and like to burrow.

Tom

They love to burrow, but now that I threw all this java moss in there for my lone galaxy rasbora, I have seen my coolie more often.

armadillo

We've got some kuhlis (presuming that's the same as 'coolies'). If not, am making a right raspberry of myself...

Ours are meant to reach 10cm only (but that's according to our LFS so, we'll wait and see )

There are several species called kuhli loaches. I know of one that reaches 5cm only. http://www.loaches.com is a pretty good resource on loaches.

Here's a picture of one of ours (we have 3 in a 13G with dwarf puffers, zebra otos and a leopard pleco). If you do get kuhlis, I'd advise that you get sand as the substrate. One of ours keeps burying itself in the gravel and is always full of scratches (I also attach a pic of that).

They're really funny fish. Totally hyperactive and squeezing themselves everywhere. Pretty good at cleaning up too.

Tom

Thanks, but I already have a coolie and it is around 4"(10cm) already and I got it when it was about 2"5cm) and 1-2 months ago. I have mine in regular gravel and some gem stones from the srt store and my coolie is doing great. I think mine goses at such a speed that it doesn't get hurt. They are neat looking fish that also look neat when looking for food.
Tom

armadillo

I love them. They're so entertaining.

I am hesitating about the sand. I saw some at the LFS in sand and they were having suuuuch a great time. Ours (one of them, anyway) has scratched himself and we're wondering if all this burrowing in gravel is good for them.

So yours grew fast, huh.

Tom

Otos and sand don't mix from what I have heard. I had noticed that when I had 2 coolies, one had some scratches, but that could just be a thing of dominance.
Tom

armadillo

Really? Well that settles it, then, no sand for us.

I just can't imagine the kuhli fighting against each other. They seem such good pals. mmmmm, food for thought.

Tom

I can't see them fighting either, but who knows.
Tom

armadillo

Yeah, who knows. You woudln't believe what fish get up to at night. Like you hear of fish that are half eaten in the morning, and you hear lots of splashing, while during the day, all are the bestest of buddies.

Tom

Or those fish that mysteriously disappear without a trace of them even being there.
Tom

capekate

LOL Tom
I just had one of my black neons do that, and the strange thing is.. these guys are not small! I found one of them sucked against the filter tube and it didnt look pretty! ugghh.. I had one come from the fishstore with a gash near its gills and didnt think it would make it. But the other one that did a disappearing act yesterday... well cant find him anywhere! hmmm must have been the fish

Tom

That's like one of my first clown loaches. I tjust disappeared and I still haven't found it to this date. That was about a year ago.
Tom

Tom

I just got another coolie loach that is almost fully grown.
Tom

Tom

Ralphie seems to be killing the platys so I won't add anything else to his nice home.
Tom