Finding Kuhli Loaches *UPDATE*

[raecarrow]

I was wondering, where do you find Kuhli loaches? The only Kuhlies I have been able to find have been Black Kuhlis. I have never seen normal or "banded" kuhlis anywhere except in pictures. Do you guys buy online? or do you go to the LFS and just check to see if they have them. I thought it would be neat to have black kuhlis and normal kuhlis in a tank. FYI, I live North west of DC in Maryland.

Thanks in advance,

[Pywakyt]

I would think that you could try your local Petsmart or Petco, I prefer Petsmart. The ones where I live only sell black but I live in Cali. Also I like Petsmart and Petco because if the unfortunate happens they have a GREAT return police. Good luck!

[raecarrow]

They only sell Blacks. I have looked. Infact I got two of my blacks from a Petsmart.

[Joe Khul]

You might want to find a shop that specializes in fish only. I have one about 40 miles from my home that carries p. kuhli, p. myersi, & p. oblonga. The LFS closer to home wont carry p. kuhli until the species as a whole is improved as the past dozen shipments over the past few years only produced approximately 10% saleable stock. Otherwise Franks Aquarium might have some in stock. (franksaquarium.com)

Hope this helps a bit.

Mike

[raecarrow]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I didn't want to order them and have them shipped but I may have to. I'm going to have to order more B.striata because I can't find them in LFSs ANYWHERE!

[raecarrow]

I think I read this in one topic somewhere. But, generally speaking, any loaches that come from franks aquarium are generally very healthy and don't need to be pretreated as much as fish coming from other sources?

[Ashleigh]

IMO all fish that are coming from an outside source need pretreated, no matter how reliable that person is-sometimes things go uncovered/un-noticed. It is not a risk that I would be willing to take with my stock nowadays.
A year ago I would have, but you always learn the hard way, and believe me when things go wrong, theres nothing worse.


Ashleigh

[raecarrow]

Gotcha, I just learned the hard way to pretreat my guppies. There has been a bad strain of Columnaris going around with guppy suppliers and I lost most of my guppies (at the end I only had 1male 1 female and 6 babies out of an original 6 adults and 30 babies).

[loachmom]

I hope you find some kuhlis.
I've been fortunate in that I have a little hole-in-the-wall pet store down the road that seems to get striped kuhlis in regularly. Unfortunately kuhlis have a terrible trip from their home waters to the store, and most do not make the trip. I stopped into this store on Sunday just to look, and there were no kuhlis in the tank. The store owner said that the whole shipment had died this time.

Have you checked the internet yellow pages for little pet shops and fish stores that you may not know about? Joe Khul was right that maybe you will find some in a fish specialty store.

[raecarrow]

I have a really kool specialty store nearby. They have never carried Kuhlis (that I have seen) but they do routinely carry a wide variety of Botiine loaches. Last time I was there they had two B.dario, poor little things were hiding and scared, and 5-6 B.kubotai, I wanted to get the kubs so badly but I don't have the tank room for them right now ) I just hope they get more in. They pretty much told me that what they get in will vary based on what their suppliers get.

How would you suggest treating new loaches? I am confused about the different methods of treating them. Also, would it be alright to treat several types of loaches in a q-tank at one time? How large would the q-tank have to be? How long with they have to be treated? What type of decor/hiding places would you put in a q-tank? I was thinking I could make a loach motel out of PVC pipe and wire ties.

[bullisbm]

I think I read this in one topic somewhere. But, generally speaking, any loaches that come from franks aquarium are generally very healthy and don't need to be pretreated as much as fish coming from other sources?

I have gotten a number of fish from Franks, they have all been very healthy. He does treat them for worms etc but i did a short couple day quarantine to make sure they were ok. I have not had any problems with them.

I lost a couple of them but I think that was shipping stress or I may not have acclimatized them slow enough. I just think the NY to WA trip was the issue.

[raecarrow]

I lost a couple of them but I think that was shipping stress or I may not have acclimatized them slow enough. I just think the NY to WA trip was the issue.

I'm sorry you lost some of the fish. I'm in MD so the trip shouldn't be as stressfull on them.

[raecarrow]

I found a LFS about 20 min from where I live that carries regular kuhlies, yoyos and zebras as a regular thing. I also saw that they had some sumos and weathers as well but I don't think I want to mess with either of these guys right now.

They also will take special orders as well! This will be great for later on when I have a much larger tank.