Loaches Online Forum

I've taken a video of one of my Kuhli Loach wiggling. I have never really seen my loaches do this before. Is it odd? It looks very cool, like running in place. The Loaches' name is Stripes, isn't he lovely?!

So how come no one responded to my post?? I was genuinly concerned that my loach was behaving strangely and not a single one of you responded. I know that you guys have kuhli loaches.. why not let me know if this is normal behavior? This post has 70 views and absolutely no responses.. besides my own.

I can't help but wonder why I have such trouble getting responses to my posts. This is not the 1st time I have felt ignored on this site.

Hello there. Sorry you didn't get a response (until now that is). Often people will look at a post to see what it is about, if they have no knowledge to help then it is pointless them posting to say so really. Also bear in mind that Google, Yahoo and other search engines have spiderbots that will view posts periodically so that people searching for things can link quicker, these often push the views up on a thread.
With regard the swimming activity, I can't say if it is normal or not. I have seen Pangio species do this in local fish stores but never in any of my tanks when I kept them.
I do note however you appear to have no substrate in the tank and this may be putting the Loach under some stress, these fish much prefer to group together under leaf litter and will burrow into the substrate somewhat if it is suitably soft enough.

How many Pangio do you have? If just the one then maybe it would be an idea to get some more.

i'd love to say i know why it's doing this wriggle but i have no idea except it's not normal.
the video was nice and clear though.

mick

my missus has just seen the vid and she's not a fishkeeper, she only likes looking at them.
but she come up with a possibility, she said it looks like its scratching something of it's body, as it was doing it against the rock.?

mick

I have seen something very similar to this when I had a group of kuhli's on a bare glass bottom, it looked like they were trying to wriggle into crevices that weren't there, this behaviour stopped as soon as they went into a tank with gravel substrate.

Mad Duff wrote:I have seen something very similar to this when I had a group of kuhli's on a bare glass bottom, it looked like they were trying to wriggle into crevices that weren't there, this behaviour stopped as soon as they went into a tank with gravel substrate.

That's how it looks to me. I've never kept kuhli's, but it looks to me like it's in need of some security.

I don't know what happened, but this thread never showed when I logged in. I have looked at LOL almost everyday in September.

Stripes certainly is a very pretty, bright Kuhlie.

I would say the lack of substrate and relatively high flow is stressing the Kuhlie. Hopefully there are more in the tank, because otherwise I am sure he is lonely. I seem to remember you posting that you had other Kuhlies. I would head to the local Pool Supply store, buy a 50# bag of Pool filter sand, rinse enough to make a 1" substrate in the bottom of the tank. I would also add a couple small coconut huts (usually sold for lizards and hermit crabs), boil them and put them in the tank. The Kuhlie will probably tuck into them.

To make sure there isn't a major problem I would check the water quality -- Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate to make sure everything is okay.

IMO that's the movement they do when the burrow in sand. Sink their body and leave the face out.

Probably a way to tell you "I need some soft sand please!"

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I am sure Stripes was not scratching. There would be more of a flicking motion if she was itchy.
I guess maybe it could be a longing for substrate.
I have a light layer of sand on half the tank but definately not enough to bury under. I am about to move in a couple weeks, so that would be a perfect time to add sand since the tank will be dismantled. I had tried to add a bowl of sand to see if they would play in it, but they never did.

I have 3 other kuhlis. 2 of them are stripey but apear to be a different type than Stripes, and 1 brown one. They all hang out with eachother under the driftwood when not swimming.