Kuhli loaches keep dying on me! :(

HI all,

I have a 20 gallon high tank, cycled, other happy inhabitants, and one striped kuhlI loach. The other loach we originally put with that one died within a couple weeks. So we bought two more. One was dead within hours of adding it to the tank, and the second one went the next day. Nothing obvious is wrong... tank parameters are good (ammonia/nitrites 0, nitrates under 30). I have colored gravel substrate over Floramax. I know sand would be better, but this is what I've got for now. There are plenty of plants, smooth river stones, a driftwood cave, and a big "castle rock" with a cave underneath it. Our one surviving loach loves the driftwood and comes out to eat, he seems to be healthy.

Can anyone give me some ideas for why my loaches keep dying? Maybe I am not acclimating them carefully enough? I floated the bag for about 20 minutes, slowly adding tank water to their water, before adding them. We do have hard/alkaline water. I also added Prevent Ich to the water. After dealing with an ich outbreak recently, I planned to start adding that with new fish. It's supposed to be loach-safe (and our surviving loach is still doing fine, and did fine through a 2-week course of it in the past). What can we do next time--or should we just give up on keeping loaches?

 

KuhlI loaches are sensitive to medication in the water so is it possible the ICH preventative could have had anything to do with it? I understand that you have that one that wasn't bothered by it. Did they have any obvious signs of illness or changes in behavior prior to their deaths?

 

The one we lost a few weeks ago looked like it had a physical injury to it. A white patch on its belly, not raised or fluffy, it looked like the color had been rubbed off, for lack of a better description. I chalked that up to an injury possibly sustained during netting at the store (they had trouble catching them).

As for the ones I just added yesterday... not long before their sudden deaths, they started swimming like crazy all over the tank, gasping, gradually lost strength, and drifted to the bottom where they died. The first one lasted only a few hours in my tank. The other one seemed fine yesterday, then started up the same behavior today and died in hours.

 

The only other possibility I can think of, it sounds a little crazy, but I have small children... one of them likes to bang his cars on the table in front of the fish tank. He is very excited about the fish. We're working on that, but he's only 18 months! Are loaches particularly sensitive to noises and movement outside the tank? Again, the one survivor is doing fine... but maybe the new ones were stressed because they hadn't gotten used to the hiding places yet?

 

It sounds like it could be an acclimation issue. I had a similar issue when I started with kuhli's. The first 3 I bought I still own over a year later. The following 14 (yes 14 split between 3 different purchases) died within 72 hours of purchase. It also could be a bad quality from your LFS issue. Kuhli's are very sensative. I would suggest doing a very thorough gravel vac and trying again. This time float the bag for 20 minutes and then add a small amount of water (maybe a quarter cup? 2-3 ounces at a time) every 5 minutes and do this until the water is roughly double what it was before you started. Then carefully poor half of the water out of the bag and repeat the process. Once the bag has doubled in volume again they are usually ready.

 

Well, just had the shock of my aquarium life when I went to go get the most-recently-dead kuhlI out... and it wasn't dead. Its color looks good, and it's hanging out with my other one now. So, maybe I'll have at least two after all... I'd love to have more, but I don't think I'm adding any for awhile. My poor 8yo son's heart can't handle losing more fish right now.

 

i'm not sure if you are open to ordering fish online but after I had 14 kuhlI deaths on me from my LFS stock, I decided to try some from somewhere else. That's when I discovered Trins Fish. I have since ordered 9 kuhli's in total from them and still have all 9. I've never lost one of theirs.

 

I have had bad luck with KuhlI Loaches too. I assumed they died due to my hard water and high pH, but everyone I talked to seemed to think that was not likely. I then realized they died shortly after I added API Algae Fix to the tank, yet everything else in the tank survived. I think it's possible the medication is what caused the problem as they are just very sensitive due to their scales.

 

Thanks to TY Guy I also ordered 6 striped kuhlI loaches from Trinfish.com. Put the bad in the tank for 30 min. opened the bag and added 1/2 cup of tank water every 15 minutes times 5. then 15 minutes after the last addition I let them swim out of the bag and into the tank. That was a few months ago and all 6 are doing great. I plan to order some more from them . they were very healthy , good sized and well packed. Alison