Loaches Online Forum

So some of you guys may remember I just added what was sold to me as a Khuli loach. I have no idea if this is true as its very very black and in all your pic's and others I have seen I have not seen such a black loach period. Anyway my question is this. I have black substrate I want to add some red to bring out my "Khuli" and my Dojo. I would also like to vacuum the tank. So how can I safely vacuum without vacumming up the Khuli or the Dojo and how can I safely add the red without squishing the Khuli or the Dojo?

I have 3 black kuhli loaches and what I do before I vacuum is to remove my loaches and put them in a bucket with some tank water. Catching them is really hard but you have to be patient and eventually, after chasing them around for a while, they will swim into the net. Another trick is to grab the gravel they are buried in in the net along with them. They are almost harder to catch then my botiine loaches.

I have both and when I clean the gravel I just make sure to move all the hiding places to one end. I stir up the gravel some with my hand and they all swim to the other side of the tank.

raecarrow wrote:I have 3 black kuhli loaches and what I do before I vacuum is to remove my loaches and put them in a bucket with some tank water. Catching them is really hard but you have to be patient and eventually, after chasing them around for a while, they will swim into the net. Another trick is to grab the gravel they are buried in in the net along with them. They are almost harder to catch then my botiine loaches.

Rae,

You must be more patient than I am. I have only moved my kuhlis twice since I've had them. Once was the move from QT to the 55 gallon, and the next move was from the 55 to the 30 gallon. Both times were a real pain, for me and for them. I have 19 of them.

When my kuhlis were on gravel, I just vacuumed carefully, never pushing the gravel vac down hard so that it might pinch one of them between the vac and the bottom glass. I believe it was Graeme that once said that he pushes the end of a net or something in front of the gravel vac in order to scare away any burrowing fish.
I changed my tank over to sand from gravel while the kuhlis were in the tank. I just pushed all the decor to one side and the kuhlis scrambled over to hide in it while I removed the gravel and added the sand. Then I moved all the decor over to the sand side and then removed the gravel from the first side.

I do not move my Loaches to vacuum the gravel (in those few tanks that still get vacuumed).
Just go slow, and the Loaches will get out of the way.

Or use the yard stick.... my own invention with a drum stick taped on the gravel cleaner, this moves the substrate before the suction of the gravel cleaner hits the area.

Could you give us a picture of your invention?

I haven't taken a picture of it but you make sure the wooden stick is at least 1 inch longer than the mouth of the gravel cleaner. I'm going to update it with a plastic one soon, i have a feeling that some Pathogens may multiple more on a wooden surface.

Thanks for all the advice.