Every aquarist dreams of raising and breeding their fish at the home aquarium. But very few of them succeed as it can be really hard to breed fish without research or experience. And Kuhli loach is already a hard fish to keep in the tank. Hence, they ask for more research and care than other fish in the tank. And when it comes to breeding, the scenario is completely different. So the first question you need to ask is how to breed freshwater Kuhli loach? This is followed by more questions ahead.
Breeding Kuhli loach in the tank can be challenging. From the tank size to taking care of the babies will be a real deal. You have to keep the water levels low, dim lighting, and dense vegetation in the tank while creating a rainy environment for your freshwater Kuhli loach to breed.
You have to maintain more things for your Kuhli loach to start the spawning. Your female Loaches will stay stubborn till the end until and unless they find a good environment to breed.
You will have too many questions and problems if you go by the piece of information I gave above. That’s why I tried to divide each of them into various subheadings.
Here is an article entirely dedicated to helping you breed Kuhli loach in the tank. Read this until the end to learn about breeding your Kuhli loach without any chaos.
Are Kuhli Loaches Hard To Breed?
Yes, Breeding Kuhli loach at home is one of the most challenging things you will do while raising Kuhli loach in the tank.
They are not easy to keep, and neither are they easy to breed. Therefore, you will have to go through various steps to ensure your Kuhli loach is spawning.
They will ask for a monsoon out of the blue to induce spawning. Their trigger can be a real piece of work for you.
Let alone the spawning; your Kuhli loach will give you a hard time even having eggs inside them.
Can Kuhli Loach Fry Survive In Main Tank? You can also be interested in this topic.
You have to take care smallest details, water parameters, and even the diet while changing the water time and again.
This all will not even induce spawning. It will only make your Kuhli loach pad out with eggs and become full enough to lay them.
Does Kuhli Loach Die After Giving Birth? How To Prevent It? Find out here.
Things You Will Need To Breed Kuhli Loach
You have to prepare beforehand the things you need in the tank while breeding Kuhli loach. There are times when we often miss the tiny thing and fail to do the work.
Breeding Kuhli loach is a hard task, and if you keep missing equipment, you might have neither eggs nor fry in the tank.
- Heater: Orlushy Submersible Aquarium Heater, 100W Adjustable Fish Tank Heater
- Water Sprinkler
- Sponge Filters
- Aquarium sand substrate
- Floating plants
- Java moss
- Neutral Water pH
- Spawning mop
- Dim lighting: Hygger lights is the first best option. The second best option is NICREW Clip on Aquarium Light, Fish Tank Light with White, Blue, and Red LEDs, Planted Aquarium Light for Nano Tank, 2 Lighting Modes if you have plants in the aquarium.
Step By Step Guide On How To Breed Freshwater Kuhli Loach
Kuhli Loach can be one of the hardest fish to keep for beginners and the hardest to breed for experienced aquarists.
Either way, they will not give an easy loophole to have Kuhli loach babies in the tank. You have to take care of many things before and after breeding your Kuhli loaches.
Do not get your hopes up, as there is a 90% chance that one will fail while breeding Kuhli loaches. These loaches can be stubborn like that.
But if you get yourself into that 10% success rate, you will be making a profit. But first, let me tell you how to breed Kuhli loaches in the tank.
Here are all the things you need to look after while breeding your Kuhli loaches:
Step 1: Decide The Number Of Kuhli Loaches
You need to have at least 8 Kuhli loaches in the tank with the female to male Kuhli loach ratio of 2:1. Never ever try to keep less male than female in the tank.
This can hurt the male ego, and you will have to deal with another aquarium war between the male Kuhli loaches.
8 is the appropriate number as this will guarantee that one pair of the Kuhli loach will at least breed and give you eggs.
Step 2: Set The Right Water Parameters For Kuhli Loach
Your Kuhli loaches can be a bit sensitive and demanding regarding water parameters. You have to have water quality optimum all the time.
While you have to raise the temperature up to 82 degrees Fahrenheit or even higher, the water pH needs to be acidic or neutral.
Do not let the water parameters fluctuate constantly, making your Kuhli loach go crazy. It is even better to change 5% of the water every day to have a certain movement in the water.
Remove the leftovers and the dead and decaying plants from the tank immediately. Also keep the water level low for them to breed properly.
There are many instances where Indian almond leaves have helped induce spawning in the Kuhli loaches. Thanks to the slow yet constant acidic release in the tank.
Step 3: Keep Some Aquarium Plants
From where these Kuhli loaches come from, there is dense vegetation, which helps them breed easily.
Hence, you have to keep your Kuhli Loach among many plants in the tank. You can go for java moss and java fern for the bottom of the tank.
While you can be okay with Java moss and fern, it is best to go for floating plants. These Kuhli loaches will often swim around the roots of floating plants while breeding and spawning.
Step 4: Choose The Right Aquarium Substrate
Now, as you do for any other Kuhli loach tank, you need to have the sand aquarium substrate. It is better to give them few hiding spaces in the tank.
With some decorations like plastic tubes, it is better for your Kuhli loaches to have sand in the tank. Remember to have the tank size nearly 30-gallons while keeping 8 Kuhli loaches together.
Step 5: Prepare Your Kuhli Loach To Breed
This is the most difficult and crucial part of breeding your Kuhli loaches. If your loaches are not even ready for the breeding process, how can you expect to see any fry or eggs in the tank?
You have to prepare them for breeding and spawning as if they are soldiers going for a battle.
Not that they will give you a hard time, it is just that these Kuhli loaches rarely breed in captivity.
Hence, rare cases are the most difficult ones to attain, and it is not that these things have not been done. You have to know where to start.
If you want to be successful, you have to make these Kuhli loaches as comfortable as possible. Try to mimic their natural habitat along with very dense vegetation.
Keep too many live floating plants and a sand substrate where they can dig and play around.
Dense vegetation promotes spawning and breeding, while sand substrate gives them comfort.
Also, take care of the diet of your female Kuhli loach. You have to feed them nutrition and various types of food, and you have to do it more frequently.
This will help them to be plumper with eggs faster. Once you see them full of eggs, it is time to trigger the spawning process.
Step 6: Breeding Kuhli Loaches
When you get them ready for spawning and breeding, it is time for the trigger. These loaches will be full of eggs and yet wait for the right moment to spawn.
Thunderstorms and the rainy season trigger the spawning in the wild, and Kuhli loach will finally breed and lay eggs.
How Many Babies Do Kuhli Loaches Have? and How Many Kuhli Loach Eggs Usually Hatch? Get more information here.
Hence, you have to create a rainy season and sprinkle water from the top for your Kuhli loaches to breed further.
If your trigger was successful, then there is a chance you will see them spawning the very next day.
Do not try to find them spawning during the daytime as they will most probably be excited and swimming rapidly during the day.
Once the female signals the male Kuhli loach for spawning, you will find them swimming together.
They will move around the tank side by side and stay at the aquarium’s top while spawning.
These Kuhli loaches will twist around each other and go back to the bottom of the tank after splashing together.
After this, you will probably see a bright green clutch of 300 to 400 eggs going down to the bottom of the tank.
Pregnant Kuhli Loach: Should I Separate Pregnants? I have written in detail about it in our next article.
Where Do Kuhli Loaches Lay Eggs?
If we look at the place where they lay eggs in the wild, it will be easier for us to find the eggs in the tank.
So, let’s talk about their natural habitat first. In the wild, you will find Kuhli loach eggs on the roots of the plants in the shallow water.
You may already know the love they have for plants. And here again, dense vegetation is the plus point for them while breeding.
Hence, if you go by this in the tank, you will surely find eggs in the roots of the live floating plants. However, remember to keep the water levels low and dense vegetation.
Some eggs might fall down to the bottom of the tank too. That’s why it is better to have a spawning mop at the bottom of the tank as a preventive measure.
You will easily spot the green clutch of too many eggs on the roots of the plants if you look carefully.
These greenish jelly-like eggs are way easier to pinpoint than the whitish transparent eggs of other fish.
Raising Kuhli Loach Fry
After Kuhli loaches are done laying eggs and fertilizing them, it is better to separate them from the eggs immediately.
Your Kuhli loach doesn’t have parental instinct and will not care about their eggs or fry. They might even end up ending all the eggs from the tank.
That’s why it is suggested to get a spawning mop beforehand. The floating plants may give shelter to these eggs but will do nothing to protect them.
Kuhli loaches are scavengers and will probably scavenge the bottom as soon as they are done spawning. Hence, the eggs they laid will be in danger, and your efforts will be null.
Remove the adults from the tank and let it be a fry tank only for a while. The fertilized eggs will hatch after two days.
You will probably find them swimming by the 3rd day. Now comes the number of babies Kuhli loaches have.
You might be looking at nearly 300 to 400 Kuhli loach babies in the tank. Hence, you have to be careful about the tank size before breeding.
Diet
These Kuhli loaches babies won’t have a yolk sac attached to them. So, the feeding job comes down to you, and you need to know how often to feed your Kuhli Loach and the fry.
Feed them infusoria frequently for the first week, while after the second week, you can move on to the brine shrimp and micro worms.
You have to continue this diet for one month and a fortnight. After that, you can shift to dry fish food or food that you give adult Kuhli loach.
Water Parameters
Please make sure the water parameters are optimum during this time, and it is even better to change 5% water every day.
If you want to profit from this, then wait for five months. These Kuhli loaches attain the saleable size after this interval.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kuhli loach can bring lots of questions with their existence in the aquarium. Hence, I collected a few most asked questions from the people often ask section and answered them. This will make it easier for you to understand them to some extent.
Why Is My Kuhli Loach Swimming Frantically?
Kuhli loach can be one of the weirdest yet adventurous fish you will get for the aquarium. And I hope the pet store warns you that your Kuhli loach can do various things.
If not, let me tell you all about it. Firstly, Kuhli loach digs the substrate and buries themselves just because they want to.
Similarly, Kuhli loach often goes missing in the tank when they are scared or uncomfortable.
This happens frequently, and aquarists think that Kuhli loach died and got sucked up in the aquarium.
Also, Kuhli loaches will stay at the top of the aquarium while acclimating. Now, coming to the question, which is often another weird trick your Kuhli loach can pull.
Have you heard about the famous ‘Kuhli Loach Dance’? Yes, you read it right. Kuhli loach is famous for its dance, and they will not do it without any reason.
There are three main reasons why your Kuhli loach will be swimming erratically/frantically in the tank:
- Changes in the weather thunderstorms can trigger spawning, which will, in turn, make them show their dance).
- Poor Water Quality and the will to escape the tank to avoid it.
- Lastly, they swim frantically because they want to. Simple as that. (Weird, told you!)
Can You Have One Kuhli Loach?
I don’t think it is good to keep only one Kuhli loach in the tank. I can understand where this is coming from, but there are always two sides.
We all know, Kuhli loach is not schooling or shoaling fish. Hence, we draw the conclusion that they will be happy when we keep them alone in the tank.
But, here, we are wrong, and we will be cruel. Although you will not see these loaches making school in the tank or in their natural habitat, they prefer to be with the group of Kuhli loaches.
The familiarity among their kind makes them feel comfortable in the tank life. Also, they thrive and will come out frequently when they are a group of at least five other Kuhli loaches.
These shy fish will never come out of hiding even at night, let alone during daytime if you keep only one in the tank.
People won’t even notice their presence and think there was never one in the tank. Hence, I would never recommend you keep one Kuhli loach as you will never be able to see it.
The minimum tank size for Kuhli loach is 15-gallons which can easily house 6 Kuhli loaches.
And if you have doubts about this tank, go for the 20-gallons tank, which is considered as an ideal tank size for Kuhli loaches.
Conclusion
In conclusion, breeding Kuhli loach will not be a cup of tea for everyone. It will barely be a cup of tea for anyone while they are new to this, and Kuhli loach barely breeds in the tank even when given everything accurately. Don’t get your hopes up, and neither gives up. You never know when you will succeed. You can keep on trying but make sure you maintain the water parameters optimum and feed them good food. The main trigger is the rainy season, so don’t forget that.
If you are careful and dedicated enough, you might make a profit out of this. Don’t let failures hold you behind.
Good Luck!!
Happy Fishkeeping!!!
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