In message .com,
dfreas writes
When I originally bought my 20g long aquarium from someone who had
allowed it to get into a mucky state of deep green it came with a
handfull of sad paranoid fish. 2 zebra danios, an adult siamese algae
eater, a stunted black molly that was actually permanently *smaller*
than the danios, and something that looked sort of like a kuhli but not
quite.

The algae eater was donated to the LFS the next day - I don't know why
anyone would buy one of those things. The danios and molly lived about
six more months and eventually died peacefull deaths - though the molly
never got any bigger which I thought really strange. The kuhli OTOH has
been a wonderful addition to my aquarium. He dissappeared for about
four months when I turned the aquarium into a cichlid aquarium and I
thought for sure he had become lunch but about a month ago when I sold
all of my cichlids he reappeared as happy and active as ever.

The one disappointing thing about him is that I can't find black kuhlis
(which I recently found out is what he is) in any LFS around here. He
needs some friends. The normal variety of kuhlis are in abundance at
every store I go to but I don't know if they would be a good tankmate
or just another competitor. I'm sure they would be peacefull to
eachother I'm just not sure they would make the brown kuhli any
happier. Thoughts? Would a school of the normal striped variety of
kuhlis and my black kuhli be happy together or mostly ignore eachother?


disclaimer: I have only the black kuhlis & they're a relatively recent
acquisition, but in the LFS (a good one run by an enthusiast) I have
seen a mixed tankful of the normal kuhlis and the black ones and they
all behaved as if they were the same, highly social, species. My guess
would be that you'd have an initial few days of very wary loaches then
they'd all be fine. If it is possible to track down the black ones, my
only reason for getting those would be that they are marginally more
out-and-about than the stripey guys.

you could try the discussion board at www.loaches.com - very
knowledgeable & very friendly people. Fantastic site generally, in fact.
--
sophie