Are Banded Kuhli Loaches less available now in the hobby?

[noki]

Are Banded Kuhli Loaches less available now? I never see the old standard colorful orange and brown banded Kuhli Loach anymore for sale. Petsmart has some brown "Black" Kuhlis, I suppose they are still cute.

Are the banded ones in trouble in nature? Habitat loss? Or am I just not seeing them in my area?

[Jim Powers]

I'm no kuhli expert, but have noticed that they often come in dead to the fish stores I deal with. They tend not to order them often because of that. I'm not sure that is the only reason they are scarce in the trade these days, though.

[HSTurning]

The stores I deal with have also stopped ordering them. I had one store order me 12 on 3 seperate times. I seen 1 bag come in all dead, another had 3 make it and the last time all 12 lived.

[glenna]

a few months ago, I ordered some kuhliis, and expected black. I was thrilled when I got banded by mistake. I cannot imagine wanting the black as my banded kuhlis are SOOO beautiful!!!
LUcLY ME!!!!
I only wish they would spawn.....any suggestions to get them to do so???

[starsplitter7]

For me I love all pangios. Don't care if they are black or striped. My local loach store always seems to have the striped guys. Walmart has sold the black ones in betta bowls. Augh!

[Drfunkenstein57]

I too love all Pangio's, I think they make a great addition to any community tank: Interesting behaviour, shape & the benefit of acting as ground crew to mop up any uneaten food.
For a few years now, have not seen banded khulis for sale, but imagine my delight when I found some in my local LFS recently. He sold me 4 of them at £1.50 each, which I thought was an absolute bargain. All are a good size & seem in good condition, & I also suspect that they are the "Myersi" variety, as they are mostly jet black, with thin orange bands & virtually no white underbelly visible.

I have added these to my community tank, to go with my existing 3x Black Khili's & my horse faced loach.

[NancyD]

I see both myersi & kuhli in lfs too, both coasts. Where are you located noki? You could also get them online from http://www.franksaquarium.com/brookstreamloaches.htm or aquabid but pangios don't always ship well as others have said. I think it may be that so many are dumped into 1 bag & fewer fish would have a better chance. You can also see if your lfs can order them for you, large chain stores probably won't.

[Drfunkenstein57]

One theory that I have as to why Khulis don't ship well / or that they don't appear that often in LFS is that maybe wild caught specimens are captured by mild poisoning.

It is well known to aquarists that khuli loaches (of all types) are very difficult to catch. Imagine trying to catch them in their native habitat, then think of the techniques used by some unscrupulous fishermen, as we have seen used with marine fish.

Would this explain why so few khulis turn up for sale/ or do not transit so well, due to poisoning? I hope not!!