Loaches Online Forum

Yesterday morning I was convinced one of my kuhli's was dead. This is the one that we've never been able to determine the exact species on - most likely Kuhlii, but has some Meyersi traits as well.

Anyway, he was right up against the glass, stretched out, and so grey i could barely make out the stripes. no response when i put my fingers on the glass, and I couldn't see any breathing.

so I got out the net to scoop him out, and as soon as the lid opened, he wiggled off. The lights weren't scheduled to come on for several hours, but I turned them on anyway. All the other fish seemed fine, and the one kuhli got a little color back, but not much.

I had to go to work, so i just put the lights back on the timer, and left. Came back to test the water:

pH 7, Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0, Nitrates 0. Temp is 81

Everyone was acting normal all night, and the one kuhli's color was normal again.

So two questions:

I thought greying out was a response to stress - i've seen it happen when there were changes to the environment, or or when acclimating fish, but this guy was just sleeping. Is that odd?

and second question: As fish keepers, do you ever stop worrying? I just adore my fish, and i'm still pretty new at it (2 years). But sometimes I wonder if I'll ever just be able to relax and enjoy them without worrying every time something seems a little amiss.

having said that though, I'm most grateful for this community on many levels! I've learned so much from you all.

hey... i have 6 kuhli's that i bought all together, 2 of them are different though, they are a bit bigger and they have different patterns from the others and each other... anyways, i find that a couple of my kuhli's will grey out like this regularely, even though their water is healthy and fine, they seem to do it in response to darkness, i first discovered it when they were fairly new and i was doing a water change.. they were hiding under an ornament and when i moved it a couple were really faded and the rest were just a bit faded... they all color back up when they got adjusted to the light so i don't worry anymore when i see them like that.. i think it may just be to camouflage them while they are sleeping...