My 240l Planted Tank, Again.

Nice, like it. 

Are your khulis still chasing down the bugs disturbed in your substrate changing activities? Must be fascinating to watch 

I've always been afraid of not seeing khuli loaches because of their nocturnal nature - they are such interesting fish though.  Do you see much of yours during the day? What do you feed them?

The more kuhlis there are the more they come out. In order to see them, you need lots of them 

It's always difficult to know what to do for the best with aged fish, the last few of a shoal. If you don't want more, just keep them as they are till they pass away from old age.

But if Matt or anyone else is thinking of getting any, get at least 6, preferably a lot more.

In a tank that size, I would look at having 10 to 15 kuhlis.

I've seen photos by people who have 10+ with the kuhlis draped over pieces of decor at the most peculiar angles. The owners reckon they only do this when there are enough of them to feel comfortable to be seen out. One owner I've read had 15 in a 2 foot tank 

MA should be able to order in anything on their central list of fish.  I would imagine they would have no problem getting hold of khulis.  If your anywhere near Chorley.... Aquahome had some in today.

I was once told they can get anything on their list as Matt said. But they can't get anything not on their list, and the fish I wanted wasn't.

Nice! 

I find fish behaviour so much more interesting that their looks so I totally get what you mean about the barbs vs harlies.     That said, ive never kept barbs... how would you say their behavious compares to the harlies?

Harlies for me are strong directional shoalers (though every now and then one of them seems to forget this is the case), they do their 'sharking' when displaying to each other and I find their feeding fascinating they seem to spy the food from 10-15cm below the surface then make quick darts to the top to grab the food then back down again to munch it down.  I assume because there are birds which would eat then in their natural environment. They don't tend to interact with the decor much but rather prefer to be out patrolling back and forth across the front of the tank.


PS. Reading up a bit about the discussion on MA's fish list they should be able to order anything off, i assume the same applies for the plant list I posted recently...

The barbs aren't completely settled in yet, so it'll be interesting to see if/ how their behaviour changes as they get more comfortable in their new environment. Most of them are still doing what I think of as the 'new fish dash'. Which is swimming up and down in the area of strongest current (the back wall of the tank). When they're not doing this they seem to swim in a slightly more nose down position. And they seem to have a stop start swim pattern. Whereas the rasboras are definitely horizontal and more 'pootley', just keeping up with the current, but not then moving quite as quickly. These two swim positions make sense when reading up on their natural feeding habits. Rasboras are surface feeders, whereas the  five band barbs are substrate feeders. Again this was really obvious when I fed them. On Monday I fed a generous portion of flake, assuming that the barbs would have some. I'd read that barbs don't do well if fed only dried food, but I didn't realise that they wouldn't even recognise flakes on the surface as food! Having overfed the rasboras, I think didn't want to try a different food (which I know the rasboras would have gobbled as well). So by the time I fed again on Tuesday evening, the barbs seemed pretty hungry. This time I fed some gel daphnia. I tried to squidge it out of the packet in little bits and spread it around. The barbs waited till I was out of the way and then dashed out. They went completely head down and then moved around picking at the food on the substrate, or plants. The rasboras again kept as horizontal position as possible while picking food up. If one of the barbs broke up a bit of gel so there were loads of bits in the water, it was the rasboras that would go for the bits. The barbs seemed happier vertical, picking off the substrate.

Because they have different swim positions, it isn't as noticeable that they actually have pretty similar body shapes.

The kuhlis are out more and more as well (well one of them is). I've seen them just chilling under the crypts or draped over the  base of the bolbitus. I'm looking forward to getting more and they will be my next fish purchase. I asked when I bought the barbs if they had any kuhlis and the lady that served me offered to order some. So when I'm ready for my next fish, I'll give my local MA a call and order some kuhlis.

I've realised that although all my fish choices should be compatible, they all have different behaviours. I won't get anything else done once I'm fully stocked from watching fish!

I've realised that although all my fish choices should be compatible, they all have different behaviours. I won't get anything else done once I'm fully stocked from watching fish!