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Re: kuhlie loaches



>>Subject: kuhlie loaches


I think that they may eat snail eggs or very small snails (less than 1mm)
but they don't seem strong enough to eat anything bigger than that nor are
their mouths very big. It's fairly hard to really watch how they eat but I'm
sure that it is similar to the black kuhli loaches and the horse-faced loach
('long-nosed sand loache' according to LFS). My three tanks at home have
sand substrates and watching both of these species you can see the sand
sorta getting sucked up and ejected through the gill covers. I find myself
wondering how these guys would eat in a gravel bottom tank since the grains
couldn't fit through their gill covers... My dojo and yoyo loaches can also
be seen doing this but both can also take snails and other large foods.

The horse-faced loaches are probably the best for stirring up the substrate
although the yoyo will bury himself somewhat as well. I also had an
orange-tailed loach ('painted blue botia' according to LFS) which could
completely bury himself on occasion (and would probably eat snails) but he
jumped out of the tank presumably because of a lack of hiding spots at that
time. They don't seem to like bright light. The only holes in the cover
don't even look big enough for him to jump through :-(

verdict: I think they'll leave your snails and shrimp alone (though i've no
experience with shrimp). I don't think they stir the gravel or sand up much
except for the very top couple of mm.

Shannon