Kuhlii loach in a planted tank?

[freddiewee]

hi

i was wondering if it was possible to keep these cute little creatures inside a planted tank. wouldnt they disrupt the roots of certain plants and preventing them to take hold of new ground like HC? and other small foreground plants. not so worried bout bigger plants.

what say you? im intending on getting a few of these strange little creatures...

[benny]

Should not be an issue. I used to have them and the plants are fine.

Cheers,

[vinz]

Same here. Haven't had them uproot any plants before... but for a new tank, I'll suggest you give the plants a week or two to establish their roots before you introduce the khuli loaches.

The other thing is... you won't see them much. They are nocturnal and will hide in the day.

[bryan]

Provide good hiding places and you will never see them again. I keep them in a crypt and fern tank with branchy wood so there is nowhere to hide under. Initially they hide in the fern, after awhile they lose their fear and come out for food.

[juggler]

No problem. Nice to see them appear once in a while especially during feeding time.
They also help to keep the population of snails (in my case Malayan Trumpet Snails) down.

[illumnae]

sounds like a good solution to snails in a planted tank a loach that's small and scape safe

[freddiewee]

ah ok thanks intending to get a couple... but i heard that yamotos and bigger shrimps would pluck out small plants like HC but so far so good, they are more occupied with the algae and they seem to be growing too, found full prawn shells on the bottom and wondered which had died, did a count and found out instead they molted, almost all at once!

cheers

[aquarius]

Just wondering since they're bottom dwellers, do they swim to the surface to eat when you're feeding floating foods?

[freddiewee]

i just gotten 4 of them... and i lost them! somewhere in the tank haha. nah i doubt they swim to the surface unless the water is oxygen deprived. amazingly, they dont seem to dig tt much. maybe they're still too small.