Kuhli Loach Stats
Minimum Tank Size: 10 Gallons
Care Level: Moderately Easy
Water Conditions: 5.5-6.5
Temperature: 75-86
Maximum Size: 4 inches
The Kuhli Loach (pangio kuhlii) is small eel shaped fish that is found throughout Indonesia and Malaysia. While it superficially resembles an eel, it is actually part of the large and varied loach family. There are nearly a dozen species of fish that are sold under the name Kuhli Loach, but the species pangio kuhli is the most commonly available for sale.
In the wild, kuhli loaches tend to inhabit slow flowing streams and rivers with soft, muddy bottoms. While they are not a traditional schooling fish, they naturally form into large groups with regular and playful interactions.
They tend to stay relatively small in the home aquarium, growing to an average size of around three inches. Some are known to grow larger, and can reach lengths that exceed four inches, but fish that large tend to be rare. A more common size is just under three inches and there shouldn’t be any concern if your fish is smaller.
If they are well cared for and properly fed, they may live for up to 10 years in the home aquarium, and anyone purchasing them should be prepared for a long term commitment. But they reward this long commitment by providing comical and interesting behavior for their owner.
Housing
Kuhli loaches are not a demanding fish, and will thrive in a well maintained 20 gallon tank. While many people attempt to keep them in smaller aquariums, a group of well fed kuhli loaches will quickly outgrow anything smaller than 20 gallons.
And it’s important to keep them in groups, since they are a social fish and will quickly become stressed if they aren’t kept in large enough numbers. They may even go into permanent hiding if there are kept in smaller groups and should always be kept in groups of at least five. If possible, they should be kept in even larger groups, and will exhibit more natural and playful behavior when there are more of them.
Something else to keep in mind when setting up an aquarium for kuhli loaches, is that you can further reduce any stress by providing them with a soft substrate that they can burrow into. One of the more popular choices for substrate is play sand, which is attractive, clean and best of all – cheap. It’s far cheaper than any of the gravel offered in a fish stores (most of which look like clown puke anyways).
If you do provide a soft substrate, don’t be surprised if your kuhli loaches disappear for long periods of time after you first introduce them into the aquarium. They can be skittish when first introduced, and will often burrow into the substrate or hide in plants until they feel more comfortable. This behavior can be lessened slightly, by ensuring that there are numerous caves for them to hide in, and plentiful live plants (fake plants will also work). The caves are especially important, and provide them with a safe place to retreat to if they feel threatened.
After you have chosen a substrate, it’s time to pick a filter. The best choice is usually a high quality HOB (hang-on-back) filter. A canister filter also makes an excellent choice, but its high price tag usually puts it out of reach for most starting aquarists.
I would strongly recommend choosing an Aquaclear Power Filter
It’s extremely important that any filter used in a tank with kuhli loaches have a covered intake. They are notorious for swimming up uncovered filter intakes and becoming trapped in the filter. If they aren’t discovered quickly, they may be killed by the filter, or slowly starve to death. Either way, it won’t be pretty and should be avoided at all costs.
Feeding
Kuhli loaches are scavengers in the wild, and because of this, they will eat nearly anything that is offered to them in the home aquarium. The one difficulty that may arise is that they are naturally nocturnal, and they take some time to clue in to the fact that their food arrives during the day. It usually takes them a few weeks to adjust, and once they come to the realization that are fed during the day, they will come out regularly for feedings.
To ensure that they maintain a healthy diet, they should be feed a high quality flake or pellet food, in combination with frozen foods and occasional herbivore pellets. If they are kept with other fish, it’s important to use pellets that will reach the bottom, or they may end up hungry and malnourished.
This can be especially problematic when they are first introduced, and they are still on a nocturnal feeding schedule. While you should try to never overfeed your fish, a bit extra during the first few weeks will help keep the kuhli loaches fed. I have used Hikari Sinking Wafers
When it comes to frozen food, their favorites are bloodworms, daphina, brine shrimp and blackworms. They will also appreciate any live food that you can provide, though they tend to ignore anything near the surface, so mosquito larvae should be avoided.
Breeding
It should really come as no surprise, that not much is known about breeding a nocturnal fish with a penchant for hiding. In fact, successful breeding are by most accounts exceedingly rare. But with that being said, there are some basics things you can do that triggers breeding in wide variety of fish species.
As with most fish, the first thing that you need to concentrate on is conditioning the fish. The water should be as pristine as possible, and the fish should be provided with a high quality diet for a full week. This should include live food if possible, but frozen food is nearly as good.
Once that has been completed, the only thing to do is take a wait and see approach. No one seems to know the exact trigger that initiates kuhli loaches spawning. Some people speculate that they need a gravel substrate, while others believe that temperature is the key. You can play around with these variables and hopefully something will trigger a successful spawning.
Hi! Btw thanks for the email about new website. I have 3 kuhli loaches in my 26 gal tank. They rule. But recently I noticed one looked like it was missing its barbel whisker things. I have gravel that’s really dull with no sharp points that would cut them. I had a Sandy area but my goldfish out gravel on it when I had pond snails a while ago to eat them. Lesson learned- goldies in a planted tank are worse then mayasian trumpet snails!! Will this be a problem?? They come out when the light is off and eat when I’m not there. Well, they never eat when I’m looking at them and they don’t seem skinny and the food is gone later. I’m gonna replace the gravel with sand soon. What do you think about my kuhli loach missing his barbels??
I would just keep on eye on it. Fish are generally pretty hardy when it comes to injury, and the barbell should begin to grow back slowly over time. If it starts to show any sign of infection of illness, then you’ll need to pull it out and treat it with antibiotics. But unless it starts to look stick, it should be fine if you just leave it alone.
And kuhli loaches almost always eat after lights out, so just feed them just before the lights go out and they should be happy.
Thanks! I was getting worried about my loach, I’m glad they will grow back. And I made a cave for my fish out of non-toxic air dry terra cotta clay. Would you recommend a type of coating to make it safe for an aquarium?? I though terra cotta clay would be best because flower pots are made of terra cotta and they are usually put in aquariums. What do you think?
I have had two Black Kuhli Loaches for a year and I noticed a month ago that they had babies!!!!
Not sure how many there are because they stay hid. Does anyone know how many they have at a time?
I asked the pet store and they didn’t know.
I saw one of the little ones today an its growing!!! YEA
SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!
That’s great that you had babies. That means that you provided them with some excellent conditions in their tank. Generally kuhli loaches lay several hundred eggs at a time, though most of those likely wouldn’t survive. In most scenarios, you will probably have between 10-50 fry, though that number is really an estimate. You could have less if you have hungry fish in your tank, or you could have more if they had something like Java moss to hide in. I hope that helps.
^What he said.
I had like 50+ babies when mine gave birth.
Really! did you know what you did to trigger it
HELP!!!
Does ANYONE know how many babies a black kuhli loach has at a time?
I have two adults and now I have seen one little one………………….
I have read that this is rare in an aquarium. Just wondering what to expect.
I would appreciate any help any advice.
Thanks
Well, I had 2 Banded Loaches in the 100 litre tank, which WERE
NOCTURNAL IN HABIT, UNTIL, I added 6 Java loaches, now they all swim about all over the tank, even when the light is on, very active and entertaining to watch, they even feed when the light is on, its amusing to see them sift through the sand, and fire it out through there gills. They absolutely love micro bloodworms.Great addition to any tank.Live plants, and loads of hiding places, along with Cattapa leaves, makes for happy loaches, yeah!.
I’ve not thought of trying to add Java loaches as a dither fish. It’s something I might try in the future, as that sounds like a great tank (assuming I can find them, since they’re incredibly rare in my area). Were they immediately active during the day, or did it take time? I had always heard the unbanded loachs were mostly nocturnal too.
I just purchased my first loach, I bought 3. I only see 2 at any given time. I have a 20 gallon tank with small comminity fish. I have gravel, as I hate sand (had it and couldnt stand it). Will they ge ok with the gravel? I have lots of real plants, a cave, driftwood, and tubes for hiding. Im just worried about the gravel. Any advice? Thanks!
It’s not optimal, but as a long as it’s the coated gravel you have in the store, your loaches should be fine. The rest of the setup sounds really good for them, and with kuhli loaches, it’s commonly to only rarely see them during the day. Especially with a smaller group like you have.
Thank you! I didn’t want to overstock the tank though I have an AquaClear 30 on a 20 gallon and do weekly water changes. Should I purchase a few more loaches then? I want them happy.
They definitely do better in larger groups, and will usually become more visible over time. However, you don’t want to overstock your tank. A good rule of thumb is to have one inch of fish, for every gallon of your tank. So a two inch fish would take up two gallons. Of course this doesn’t work well for wide body fish like goldfish, but it’s a good starting point. So if you do the calculations and you’re not overstocked, it should be fine.
I just love these fish. I only have three. Want more when I can find them. They are entertainment for me. Mine swim around with the lights on. They r in 29 gal with dwarf puffers. They show some interest in cucumber slices. Not sure if they r eating or playing. I’ve only had aquariums for about a year and have totally been bitten by the aquarium bug. I have two 55 gal., 29 gal and a 155 gal for my cichlids. Have spent a small fortune. Have bought and read 5 or 6 books along with the internet. Just can’t learn enough. Love YouTube also.
The same thing happened to me when I started. Before I knew it, I had aquariums in just about every room of my house. My significant other has made me reign in it a bit since then, but I still have my fish room in the basement. This is a really amazing hobby to be involved in, and it can be very rewarding breeding and keeping fish.
We have two loaches and one has become very fat in the last few sightings, wihile the other is still the same as before we are wondering if we are about to have new additions or if it’s just fat. We have a 50 gallon tank with a thriving community of live bearers.have new little one on a regular basis. Should I be concerned and how do you put one fish of many on a diet? We have nick named them the ninja fish
I wouldn’t worry about your fish; it’s probably just egg laden. They really plump up when they are egg laden and they will start to look quite fat. But there’s nothing to worry about, and as long as you’re not grossly over feeding them and they have room to swim, it’s rare for a fish to get fat. Most fish only get fat when kept in tanks too small where they can’t swim around.
Howdy. I have 4 black and 2 barred kuhlis in a 20 gal tank. I live on the coast and the local water has a high pH (between 7.5 and 8) and I need help figuring out how to lower it safely to keep it at a stable target pH of 5.5-6.5 for my kuhlis to thrive.
I currently have a farlowella catfish simply because he thrives at that pH and I need him to keep the glass clean. Does anyone know of any small suction mouth fish that thrive at a pH between 5.5 and 5.6?
Probably the easiest way to lower the pH is to add driftwood to the tank. It won’t lower it to the range you want, but it will lower it. Another relatively easy option is to use peat, but it has the drawback of staining your water, unless you soak it for a few days first.
There are some other methods to lower the pH, but unless you’re highly experienced it, I wouldn’t recommend it. It can wildly swing your pH, resulting in dead fish. And to be honest with you, most fish can adapt to high pHs without a lot of trouble. It’s much better to have a stable pH, than just the right pH for catfish.
And I can’t think of any catfish that enjoy a pH that low, but if you keep it at around 6.5-7, most of the more common ones would be fine.
Hey Rob your post have been great and I have learnt so much about new fish, invertebrates and plants that I had never known. Just so you know I have a 20 gallon (65 ish liter) tank with a some tetras. Now I have heard a rumour that kuhli loaches will eat ghost shrimp could you please clarify if this is true. I would also like to know if not using sand is OK. The last question I have is how well they will co-operate with African Dwarf Frogs. Thanks alot Ethan
Well, to answer your first question, ghost shrimp should be alright with them. I’ve keep them with ghost shrimp in the past, and haven’t heard of them preying on the shrimp – any more than any other fish at least. Many fish will try to take a bite of a shrimp if they can, but the shrimp are usually fast enough – and smart enough – to keep away.
As for sand, it really is the best substrate for these fish. It’s much gentler on their barbells, though you’ll probably be alright with store bought gravel as well; Store bought gravel is coated to give it soft edges, so while it’s not the preferred substrate for kuhli loachs, it will still work.
And finally, kuhli loachs probably won’t mix very well with drawf frogs. You’ll probably end up with a lot of very confused frogs trying to fit a kulhli loach in their mouth, which will result in unhappy kuhli loachs. It may work, but I’ve seen those frogs try to eat just about anything they come in contact with.
I have problems feeding my kuhlis. I have 3 and one far gold fish. The pellets are sink to them, but they don’t seem to like them much because trey the pellets are to hard. If I can get flakes past the goldfish, they the loaches gobble them up, but its hard to get them past the goldfish. Any recommendations too feed them softer food that sinks? I’ve tried frozen blood worms but they don’t seem to like those either.
What I would do in that situation is let the pellets soak for a little bit first: that way they’ll be soft when they go in. Or if you don’t want to do that, then you can feed right after the lights go out, and feed in two locations. While the goldfish eats the pellets on one side, the kuhlis should be able to eat on the other side.