Kuhli Loach info

[c_paan]

Does anybody here have one and think its a useful fish? I am considering getting one to feed and clean in and around the gravel. Being so small they mustnt make to much waste themselves. I will put it in the 10g with the blue ram I ordered. Good idea or bad? Are they better bottom feeders then corys?

 

[phOOey]

these fish can be great if kept in the right enviroment, but seeing as though your only planning on getting one i would not recommend it. I think you would be dissapointed, because on there own they are very unactive and normally just find a good hiding spot and stay there untill night, but in groups of 5+ they become much more active and fun to watch, im not saying these are schooling fish, just saying that they like each others company. But on the other hand cories act much the same, so deciding on which one is best when only one is being purchased is not very easy. Personally i love the eel like shape of the kuhli loach but everyone loves a cute little corie. But in my opinion, i would go wid the kuhli loach as it is a more interesting fish, even if it doesnt move around two much.

 

[Zoidfarb]

If you go with cories, it is much better for them to be kept in a small group. For a 10 gallon, you might want to try pygmy cories...tiny, but very active and fun.

 

[c_paan]

I really want something that is more practical then something to look at. Something that will aid in cleaning the waste.

 

[Lotus]

Shrimp and snails are pretty good for cleaning up a small tank. I have a dojo loach, and don't find he does a good job of cleaning, but I don't really find that the cories do either. There is always still plenty of stuff that comes up when I vacuum the gravel.

 

[Velvet AciD]

I have a small herd of glass shrimp that do a good job with taking care of my substrate. And I have one of those undergravel snails that help in stirring things up a bit.

Thier bio-load is so small you can stock (I believe, correct if wrong) 1-2+ shrimp per gallon. They take care of the stuff that floats to the bottom, they eat off of plants, when they molt they clean up after themselves and they also serve as a food source to bigger fishies.

They have a 'Whoa, cool!' factor, and it's fun to see how they interact with the rest of the tank. These little guys are my clean tank saviors.

 

[c_paan]

If I put these glass shrimp in a tank with a blue ram will they be lunch? I like the whoa cool factor alot. Thanks for those suggestions everyone. I think I may try em either way on to just see whatthey look like and two either theyll do a good job of cleaning or a good job of feeding!

 

[SomethingFishy]

Just to clarify . . . bottom feeders do not eat "waste."

I am not sure you meant that they will be eating the accumulated waste produced from the Ram or the leftover food that made its way to the bottom of the tank. To be sure, all bottom feeders not only do they not eat "waste" but they also need to be fed their own food as well. At least make sure plenty of food is getting to the bottom (which should not be a porblem with only one other fish in the 10 gallon.)

You may have already known this but I thought I would make sure as this is a common misconception about bottom feeders (one I was guilty of when I first started keeping fish.)

On to your question . . . if it were me I would choose the Loaches (and yes get a group.) I have Corys now in my 29 gallon and I love them but I would also like the Loaches. They are just harder to find in my area and more expensive.

Good Luck *celebrate

 

[c_paan]

No prob on the clear up, but I am aware and meant food, sorry i wasnt clear, my fault. i can get kuhlis fo about $4 CND. They are around 1-2 inches. I like corys but i think the kuhlis are cooler, but i think i may get shrimp its something new.

 

[Velvet AciD]

And shrimp hardly affect your bio-load too!

 

[theeyrietrainer]

yes i agree with velvet, those "ghost" shrimp as more often called here instead of glass, are like good at bottom feeding. i had like, 5 of them in my 10 gallon, the cleared up the leftovers and you sometimes pull out poop from the crevaces making it easier for me to siphon it out, but not all my shrimp did that, so depending on the shrimp, they will enjoy doing different stuff. but the downside is that i believe rams (like all its other SA Cichlid relatives) enjoy some shrimp. when i mean enjoy, i mean enjoy enjoy as in yum yum. i have heard many cases of angelfish eating ghost shrimp so i would believe rams are the same. but ghost/glass shrimp prices are quite cheap, i can get 6 for $2 here in Toronto

 

[c_paan]

im in timmins so im geussing my price for them will be some what the same. They will ahve to get the shipped in for me They dont ever hve any here.

theeyrietrainer hows the weather there. Did you guys get hit by this big storm? we got about 2 feet of snow dumped on us yesterday!

 

[Somonas]

it's just raining here. sigh.. we've only had one little snowfall so far this year.

I've always wanted to try different types of loaches. do kuhlii loaches eat snails? my single clown loach is being overrun. maybe I'll try yoyo's .

 

[c_paan]

I dont know if they would eat snails, they are pretty small. Maybe tiny baby snails.

Im going snowboarding the second I get off work! We got tonnes of snow!

 

[theeyrietrainer]

well, i THINK kuhliis eat snails, afterall, it IS a loach, and all loaches love snails! but im not 100% sure, i think they do cause ive seen a few empty shells in a kuhlii tank by the Big Al's I always go to. the weather? well, yesterday night, when i posted in this thread, it was raining just like somanas in ottawa. now that its the next day, its like, foggy i think, dont know if the fog cleared up. i havent gotten a snowstorm yet, just few tiny blizzards that end up burying like 10 cm of the floor with snow. well, depending on the store, they will sell glass/ghost shrimp for different prices, the 6 for $2 is a lfs, the Big Al's near me has 5 for $2 while Petsmart (the crazy store) sell them for 89 cent each. so it all depends on the store c_pann. you might even find a store that sells them as feeders! the price for that is normally much cheaper than the prices i have just listed

 

[Lotus]

I don't think kuhli loaches are big snail eaters, although they will eat the eggs and keep the population down. Yoyos and clowns definitely do. Our 50g was filled with snails while cycling, now that the clowns are there, they are all gone. The loaches weren't interested in any other food for about 2 weeks. My dojo doesn't seem to eat snails.

 

[GLRob]

Botia loach species are the main snail eaters. Kuhli's often eat snails but only small one's and only when other foods are not available.

 

[doctawife]

Just a side note - ya know ghost shrimp are cheap around here when my first thought when seeing "6 for $2" was, "d*mn, that's expensive!" In Houston, we get our ghost shrimp for ~$0.10. Sometimes less, 'cause the guys who do the scooping generally don't bother to put any extras accidentally caught back in the tank. =)

-doctawife

 

[c_paan]

wow that is a good price! Ill find out today how much my shrimp will cost.

 

[Velvet AciD]

Yeah, just ask the man for the feeder shrimps. That's what mine were labeled as.