My Kuhli Love Affair

[kcartwright856]

*whispers* Doooo iiiiiitttttttt....

[RTR]

If I do it, it would likely be two linked tanks, the Emperor tank on conventional cycle, the other on reversed light cycle so the pile of Kuhis would be less obvious to She Who Must Be Obeyed. Fry would end up largely in the off-standard cycle lighted tank. That does not bother either my Rainbows or my Tanganyikan Cichlids.

[kcartwright856]

You'd better hope that your kuhlis aren't like mine, then!

Mine dance and swim around like "Look at meeeee!" all day long! And night.

[kcartwright856]

Ahem. I mean, yes... your kuhli loaches will stay perfectly hidden in a pile where your significant uh-oh will never, ever spot them.

Which means you should totally do it.

[bertie 83]

Lol significant uh-oh

[Corvus]

I remember when I was a kid we had a tank (I'm still using the lid of this tank) to which 2 kuhli loaches had been added. You almost never saw them, since the tank was heavily planted. When we had to empty the tank a few years later to move it we found 10 of them at different sizes. That was one nice and unexpected find. I still have some kuhli loaches in a smaller planted tank, but I'm not sure if they are offspring of about 25 years ago, because I added another two from a fried who sold his tank and had fishes needing a home.

[kcartwright856]

Corvus, that's awesome! I was under the impression that they weren't that long-lived. I thought it was 5-10 for some reason, but after some digging, there are recorded lifespans of 20+ years!

I really hope that doing everything in my power will keep my kuhlis with me for that long!

[DrKennethNoisewater]

i have a weather loach and i think he acts the same way. hes so interesting and i have a giant mixed community planted tank filled with tons of everthing and when i ask her "whats your fav fish in this tank" the reply is always "LOACH, DUH!"

[RTR]

Many loaches are quite long-lived. Clown loaches are the Methuselahs of tropical fish, along with several catfish families.

Freedom from stress and adequate tank size both play roles there. But even stunted clowns can live to their 30s and 40s.

[kcartwright856]

RTR, you may be interested to know that one of my kuhlis is filling with eggs.

This came as a huge surprise to me because, to my knowledge, they aren't fully grown (Sexually mature?). They are all only around 2 and 1/4" long and perhaps 2/3 the width of your standard wooden pencil.

Another thing is that most of the pictures of kuhlis with eggs have been green, though I did manage to find one with yellow eggs. I wonder if this is a species thing, and perhaps one of them was not a P. kuhlii, or maybe the eggs start out yellow, but turn green as they mature. The kuhli with yellow eggs did look smaller, but it could have easily been a camera illusion.

I asked about it on a loach forum with no response. It looks like I'll be on my own here.

Alone, unless... RTR decides to breed kuhli loaches with me.

[RTR]

Unplanned breeding of them is not rare. I have personally known several hobbyists who have had many more harvested than stocked into a tank over some period of years. But the IDs are not the best, and isolating the primary micro-ecologic factors is not easy - they are all over the place even on water parameters.

[kcartwright856]

Just got a closer look at one of my other thicker kuhlis, even though she's only 2" long, and she is beginning to develop eggs as well. Tiny, tiny little yellow things that begin to surround their bowels. Since I think she's only just now starting to develop hers, I only saw them while she was hanging out in the plants in such a way that the light shone through her. Never would have caught them otherwise until they began to obscure the line of feces along her belly like my other girl.

Incidentally, I discovered this while watching my otos spawn. Again. Another reason why I didn't get a male DP to go with my girls! I have a breeding thumb or something.

[kcartwright856]

Unplanned breeding of them is not rare. I have personally known several hobbyists who have had many more harvested than stocked into a tank over some period of years. But the IDs are not the best, and isolating the primary micro-ecologic factors is not easy - they are all over the place even on water parameters.

I've heard this! It seems as though unplanned breeding is much more common than planned.

Do you have any thoughts as to why my girls are developing eggs when they haven't yet reached their 3-4" adult size, or why they are yellow instead of green?

The only thing I can figure is my development hypothesis. Perhaps they begin to develop the eggs when the kuhli herself is immature, and the eggs turn green when they become mature, or ready to be released.

[bertie 83]

If they are breeding you are defo keeping your tank well. Maturity is just a part of a life span, for example humans are said to reach maturity around 18 years of age but are capable of breeding before then. Many animals reach sexual maturity at different times to others of the same type, if that makes any sense at all lol

[kcartwright856]

I do everything in my power to keep my tank as great as I can for the fish. The breeding does seem to be a side effect!

Your analogy makes a lot of sense. I wonder if it does apply to the fish world? It would certainly make my hypothesis of the yellow eggs just being immature and are developing along with the kuhli girls as they continue to grow.

I'm keeping notes in my tank log, as I do with all the goings-on in the tank. Hopefully it can help someone else learn, as I haven't been able to find any information on this myself.