Black Khuli Loach

[koko]

Hi, I'm having trouble finding any helpful info on the black khuli loach. A friend of mine has given me 2, and she was told that they were black khuli loaches. They certainly aren't black, more of a brownish/maroon colour, they are about 6cm in length, and very playful. how big do they get? do i feed them the same foods as for the clowns (I have 3 clowns at the moment in a 65 gallon tank)? is it normal for them to swim completely around the tank, they do like a figure 8 on the front glass and keep this up for about 1/2 hr if not longer, its quite entertaining. I have read however that they like to be in groups, the only problem is that I can't find any here where I live, I was told by the LFS that they are hard to come by, is this true. Will they be ok if I got different sorts of khuli loach to keep them company? The ones I have seem happy to share the tank with the other loaches, and they like to swim against the "current" from the filter, and swim through the bubbles. Unfortunately, I haven't been successful in photographing these slippery little suckers, to be able to post a pic. Anyone with any info would be greatly appreciated.

[Martin Thoene]

Hi koko, look here:

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/pangio-oblonga

There's plenty of members here that keep them who can probably answer any specific Q's you have.

Martin.

[koko]

thanks Martin. Thats exactly what it looks like. Thats a little bit of a load off my mind. Now just to find out if its compatable with other khuli species.

[bevans]

Sure they're compatible. I've got four striped kuhlis (pangios most likely, though I thought one was a myersi for a while), and two black kuhlis, and they all lair up under some rocks and driftwood together. No problems whatsoever. They are happiest in groups, but apparently those groups can be mixed.

That figure eight thingy they do is normal-mine do it too. It's a loachy dance. Yours sound like they're out and about more than mine are-mine have too many good places to hide.

[koko]

can someone tell me please how to insert a picture on these message boards. thanks

[zmo63]

black kuhlis are the easiest to find around here - I had to search to find the striped ones. They all get on great, and are more fun to watch the more there are.

All my kuhlis do the figure 8 thing (or often just big circles), but the black ones definitely do it more. A typical scene in my tank is the three striped kuhlis rummaging through the hairgrass, and the two black kuhlis swimming circles along the front glass.

[zmo63]

to insert a picture:

Join www.photobucket.com or www.flickr.com (or any hosting service you like), and follow the instructions on there to upload your photos (you may need to resize them to 800x600 or smaller).

copy the URL for the photo (there's a text field under each photo you've uploaded that shows it)

Paste the URL into the body of your forum message, then highlight the URL you just copied and click the button that says "Img."

This will add [Img] before and after the URL, which tells the Forum to display your image.

[Diana]

I have had mixed tanks with the black ones and the most common striped Kuhlies, and they got along fine. My black ones are a little smaller than the striped ones, but no problem in mixing them.
Then I found a slightly larger striped one with sort of different markings These guys would not play with the black Kuhlies. (Racists!) So I separated the big ones to a different tank.
All my Kuhlies do the swim-in-circles and variations. Almost like a nightly ritual.

[koko]

thanks so much for the help for posting images zmo. my picture quality isn't the best, but here it goes. And thanks Bevan. Thought I'd show you some of the hiding spots my loaches have, they just seem to enjoy swimming in the tank. Couldn't get a decent pic of the fish though, they don't stay still long enough, and the darn digital camera has delayed shutter

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