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Khulii Loaches


fuzzy_dragonfly

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Regular khuliis: Acanthophthalmus kuhlii

Cute shy fish, first fell in love with them when I saw Abbey's ones, researched them and purchased a pair. They have a rabbit like face on a snake like body. Very quick swimmers impossible to catch in a planted tank. I rarely see them but when I do it's quite a treat they are one of the most unusual freshwater fish each with induvidual patterns. Apparently you can get them in albino form, but I have never seen an albino Khulii

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And Black kuhlii (purchased yesterday): Pangio javanicus (I have 2 but they won't pose together) - they are a fair bit larger then my regular ones despite reading that they are meant to be smaller!

Not as shy as my regular khuliis, that's about all I know about them at this stage. I didn't even know there was a black version till yesterday. I just had to have them because they look so close to a freshwater moray but 100 times smaller from what I've read 100 times easier to look after.

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They are beautiful Klara, I have 2, both are the striped ones, but i do like the brown ones very much. They seem to have a more chunky body and dont hide all day like the stripey ones. I once had about 15 of them, and i made a small cave with rocks against the front glass, they would all hide in there and you would get to see them all day if you wanted to :betta:

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Yeah the black ones do seem more robust. You should have bought some black ones when you were at Yagoona they had tons of them. It was the first time I'd ever seen a black/grey one and chances of comming across them again would be slim so I grabbed them, and looking back I wish I had grabbed more. I thought they were just neat colour variations of the regualr striped khuliis till I looked into them a bit. Apparently the black ones are fairly uncommon from what I read. There was also a bizzare striped khulii but I couldn't catch it. It was huge and the pattern was so wierd.

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Robbie, they are extremely easy to look after, shame they are so hard to catch! Just gotta make sure that if you have a pump and the flow gets reduced they cannot swim in and get killed by the impeller, i used to wonder what happend when i first kept them years back and keep finding this white thing in the pump! Klara, the blacks arent rare, they have been avaliable for years and i have seen them in about 5 pet shops, just strictly has the best prices for them :betta:

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^ What he said.

And they are a reasonable size too.

I really like your first loach Phil :P .

*lol* Heh heh...funny story.

A while back I lost my 2 striped khuliis, they were missing for 3 weeks and I thought that something ate them, I emptied the whole tank and churned up the gravel but couldn't find them.

Then when I emptied the canister filter for a cleaning there they were at the bottom in filthy water, a little pale and skittish but apart from that in suprisingly good health. For 3 weeks they must have lived of the scunge in the filter with no light!!! *lol* .

Easy to look after?

Well if my two could survive that unfortunate incodent without getting chopped into sushi by the impellor then any bonehead can keep them :cheer: . Breeding is another story, breeding is next to impossible but has been achieved in a few cases, just not well documented.

Ideal tank environment is similar to catfish, darkish, lots of hiding places and fine leafed plants, I've noticed they like hiding under driftwood. One adjustment is to have fine smooth substrate, they have delicate bodies but like hiding under the substrate sometimes. Oh and to avoid them getting sucked into the filter like mine grab some of that fine wedding dress material like the stiff fish nets are made from (can't remember the name) and wrap it around the inlet pipe thingy like this:

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Tulle *lol* I stitched mine at the back with fishing line, as i found that the folds where I tried wrapping it would clog up and block the flow. Its good stuff, has stayed underwater for close on 3 years now, and hasn't btroken or rotted or anything annoying like that :cheer: I lost all 3 of my kuhlies for about 6 weeks... found them in the cannister. Worries me to think that i provide so much food that things can happily live in there! *lol*

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Tulle *lol*

THAT'S the stuff :P

excellent for making reusable banana leaf tea bags and restoring fish nets too :P .

So far mine hasn't clogged up, it's still just temporarily being held with rubber bands (I love rubber bands and sticky tape *lol* ) but I'll get around to making a proper sock for the inlet end peice thing-a-ma-bob eventually.

And I'm glad I'm not the only one who has lost fish in the filter system :cheer: .

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I've had four for about a month about $4 each. They are so strange to watch the way they swim and slither over each other. Mine do not hide in the sandy gravel and actually come to the front to get fed. Love blood worms ( haven't found a fish that doesn't!) and most things that make it to the bottom.

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I have 3 kuhlis, I bought 2 extra today :thumbs:

Robbie I paid $4 for my kuhlis at a place a few mins from my house, very active little ones.

This pic was taken 6+ months ago of my then, teeny kuhli. Now he is much bigger!

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Yeah they do grow a bit, I think their max size is 10cm so mine still have abit more to grow. The patterns on mine have changed over time, and I just noticed that today the spotty pinkish one up top is very chunky, like she's got eggs developing. Doubt I'll get a spawn, the guppy and tetras will eat the fry.

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  • 6 months later...

That would be my imbellis female Stefan :) All my kookies live in a sandy bottom 2ft tank with a pair of Blue gularis, they are not disturbed by them as they have half a tank full of java moss to hide under.

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