Kuhli loach is a special kind of small freshwater fish, which is famous for its long lifetime, easy feeding, and amazing look.
You will feel so happy and busy if you let this fish live with you because it can’t live alone, it must be with a small group of the same species, so you will never feel alone and so as the fish too.
We will tell you everything you want to know about this amazing fish in our guide today.
Lifespan and Care
We can’t say that this fish can live with you for around 10 years unless you take care of it correctly.
This fish is famous for its long life term, and you can make it live with you for a long time if you treat it right, and make some small things for it.
Such as looking after the water quality, making its tank clean all the time, offering good and healthy foods for it
If you don’t do one of these small things, then you will make its lifespan very short.
You will notice that kuhli loach can’t be more than 5 inches, here is when it reaches the full-grown stage of its life.
When you make it live with you in the aquarium, you will find that it can only grow to between 3-4 inches, which is perfect.
Diet and Feeding
First, you need to know that the Kuhli Loach is one of the most famous omnivorous fishes in the world.
Therefore, you will find that it can only eat small crustaceans, larvae, besides some plant material found on the river bed.
You can also offer some vegetables, fish flakes, pellets, frozen or live food for this fish, and you will notice that it will love it so much.
You have to know that Kuhli loach prefers a meat-based diet, so make sure that you give it a balanced diet.
If you decide to feed these fishes some flakes and pellets, then you make the right choice because they are perfect for them.
You will notice that the flakes can easily sink down to the substrate, which makes it easy for the fishes to eat them.
You have to know that Kuhli loach can’t search for its food correctly, it will wait until the food sinks from the water above, then search for it to eat.
Therefore, you need to make the food reachable for them as much as you can and make sure that they eat all of it.
If you want to treat this fish perfectly, then you need to feed it several times per day.
You can feed it only as much as it can eat in 2-3 minutes, so feel free to put the foods you want.
Breeding
When it comes to Kuhli loach breeding, you will find that this is a very hard challenge for you, but it is not impossible at all.
You can make it done if you set up a breeding tank with some specific parameters.
We will tell you the most important parameters in the following points in order to make it easy for you.
- You must keep the water levels low as much as you can with very dim light.
- You have to provide dense vegetation for the females because this is where they will lay their eggs.
- The dense vegetation will always help the females to promote spawning.
- You should make the water hardness low with a pH of 6.5.
- Once your fish feels comfortable in your aquarium, you will find that its breeding is so easy.
- If you want to increase the chances of spawning occurring, then you need to keep the fishes in a community of their own species.
- You must offer plenty of food because it will encourage spawning, always look for live foods, they are the best for this stage.
- You have to know that this fish will reach sexual maturity at 2 years old, so you should be patient with your fish as much as you can.
- You will notice that the eggs hatch approximately 24 hours later, so you have to know what to feed the fry, it can only eat infusoria or brine shrimp, you can also present some commercially prepared fry food, which can be suitable as its first food.
It might be hard for beginners to take care of this fish because it always needs special care in order to prevent it from suffering from some serious diseases and parasitic infection.
The reason why this fish needs special care is that it doesn’t have hard scales, which can protect it from the effects of bacteria and fungi.
Therefore, it is easy to see that the diseases can easily get into its body.
Before having this fish, you have to know that this fish is very sensitive even to the changes in the water, so be careful about this point.
Thus, in order to introduce a new Kuhli loach into your aquarium, you must be very careful about water quality and temperature.
As we mentioned before, the water conditions must be perfect for this fish all the time because this is how you can make your fish feel comfortable and away from diseases.
If you want to make the water suitable for this fish, you must know that it lives in tropical slow-moving rivers, so you have to make the water in your aquarium just like the rivers.
It is highly recommended to make the temperature warm, it is perfect to be between 73 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
You need to know that the pH balance has to be between 5.5 and 6.5, and the water should have a hardness rating of no more than 5.0 dGH.
If you want to make your tank perfect for your new fish, then you need to choose the one that sizes only 15 gallons.
This tank will suit only one fish, but if you want to have more than one, then you need to add 3 to 5 gallons for each additional fish.
For example, if you want to have 2 fishes, then you will need a tank that sizes from18 to 20 gallons.
Now you know almost everything related to Kuhli loach fish, so we can say that you are ready to have your own.
