Loaches Online Forum

I'm a new member here, I keep queen, yoyo, clown, and kuhli loaches, the latter being my favorite.

I currently have a group of 8. Two of them I've had for over 2 years, the others just went into their home tank after 2 weeks in a QT.

Both the old and new kuhlis 'circle'; 1 or 2 will start swimming in a large, fast verticle circle against the glass, over & over...

It's fun to watch and has become a joke with us but we were wondering if this is a common kuhli behavior or not?

Thanks

Hi Theresa,

What you are seeing there is what we tend to refer to as the 'Loachy Dance'. This often occurs when you acclimatise new individuals to their new aquarium, or, in established specimens, when the aquarium decor is changed around or else in excited anticipation of feeding time etc. The fact that your Kuhlis are so relatively newly introduced would point to the former, and they are just getting to know their new home and tankmates.
As long as they look healthy to you, I'm sure all is fine. I have a picture somewhere of a new shipment of Kuhlis doing this at the shop where I work - will try to dig it out for you. This behaviour normally settles down somewhat after a few days.

Emma

Newly imported kuhlis:





Here you can see them doing the typical loop-the-loops and dive-bombing.

Emma

Simple matters, like a water change with normal or slightly cooler waters can also trigger this behavior.

awesome pictures Emma!
I remember when my kuhlis would do that all day long! They've since discovered a little groove beneath my anchor decoration and have made a home. I still see them a few times a day though. I found they did the loachy dance when they were excited or seemed to be (more so than usual) full of energy. They especially liked to do it in the bubble wall.

Thanks for the replies, and those pics are great!

It certainly is entertaining; like I said, both the new kuhlis and veterans of the tank do it....last night there were 5 going at once lol

My daughter commented on something I hadn't noticed before: they do their 'dance' on the left side of the tank, probably 99% of the time.

Here is a shot of the tank from last month, I've added more anacharis since then but the kuhlis tend to uproot them every few days.

Cute I want the second one down from the top and the fat one with the cool pattern by the bottom of the wood. I don't have any like those.