Newbie with sun loving khuli loaches

[Drfunkenstein57]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this site, though I have been keeping fish for over 25 years. I''l tell you all a little about myself, & the fish I keep.

I used to show fish quite successfully, though I no longer do this. I used to have a "fish-house" with over 15 tanks running (happy days) though since moving house, I now only have 2 tanks running:
A heavily planted 127 litre community tank & a 212 litre catfish tank (no lights, no plants, just rocks & bogwood) The longest that I have kept a fish is 23 years, this was a Giant Upside down catfish (Brachysynodontis Batensoda) which was quite tame.

Though, I have been mainly a Catfish & Cichlid keeper, I now have quite a few loaches, 1x Horse faced loach, 3x Black Khuli loach, 4x Banded Khuli loach & 1x clown loach (3" juv) all kept in the 127litre planted tank.

Just recently i have noticed some odd behaviour among the Khuli community:

The tank is heavily planted with Anubias, Java fern, Java moss & Crytocornes. The location of the tank receives just a little morning sunlight which creeps through the blinds. I have noticed that, contrary to popular belief the black Khulis spend a lot of time in the natural sunlight, grubbing around in the substrate, the banded khulis come out too, but not directly into the sunlight - they prefer swimming in open water against the outflow of the fluval2 filter. Generally Khulis are regarded as quite shy, but these loaches really do seem to gain confidence in numbers. while the horse faced loach lurks around at the rear of the tank, the juvenile clown loach tags along behind the 2 Dwarf gouramis.

Most entertaining behaviour, which I thought I might share with you all.

[chefkeith]

I find that Kuhli's are much less shy when they are not competing for tank space with schools of larger fish.

What I enjoy most about my kuhli's is how they constantly worm around in piles of large smooth river rocks that I have set-up for them.

[Drfunkenstein57]

I find that Kuhli's are much less shy when they are not competing for tank space with schools of larger fish.

What I enjoy most about my kuhli's is how they constantly worm around in piles of large smooth river rocks that I have set-up for them.

My loach tank, although heavily planted, contains many river rocks & clusters of bogwood which I use to grow java fern & Anubias on. I must admit that I spread the rocks around in random places & having read your post, am now considering grouping these together to see if the khulis move into this. My khuis are far from shy though, & are confident to swim (yes swim) about even when the lighting is on, when I kept khulis 20 years ago, I am sure they weren't that confident - but I'm not complaining, quite often I see the banded khulis swim up to investigate the rear of my two internal power filters, I have on occasion, seen them swimming against the current - maybe they enjoy this, or maybe it's just the inquisitive nature of this species.

Perhaps the difference in behaviour is because there is a good water current in this tank, whereas 20 yrs ago the only filtration I used was undergravel filters with air pumps.

[redshark1]

Many thanks for an interesting topic. It made me want to keep Khulis one day.