Kuhli on crack

[handrew]

Well I noticed the other evening that one of my kuhli loaches was acting a little odd. It just seemed to keep swimming in circles in my tank. To explain a little better, I have my discharge from the filter entering in one of the corners of my 60 gal tank. It shoots toward the front glass approx 1/3 of the way across the front. It then deflects across the front back through the tank all the way to the other end. Well what the kuhli has been doing is swimming up the front wall, getting into the current, cutting a flip backwards, swimming down the glass, and the repeating. It makes this circle about the size of a dinner plate. I wrote it off as just something that he was doing right then but I have noticed it several times now. He always does it after the lights go off and will do it for quite a while. I guess he has found some crack in there making him do some strange things. Does anyone know if this is normal behavior such as do they like current or enjoy playing? Everyone looks healthy so I am not too worried.

[Northernguy]

Sorry! Never had one!
Have you tested your water recently?Water changes on time?
Cycled properly?Hopefully its not your tank!
It could be just having fun or it has issues! lol

[leggomypleco]

All of my kulhis do this at the break of dawn and when the lights go out. I did some research on this and found this is normal behavior. As they wont do this with a single one in the tank. I find it entertaining but they can freak out fish that are sleeping.

[handrew]

Just to answer the question, all water parameters are within normal, acceptable ranges. I only ever see one doing this at a time but it could be any of them as I cannot tell them apart. I really am not sure how many are in the tank. I think I got 4 to start off with but I have only seen 3 at any one time. I just thought that this was a funny behavior to watch. I laugh every time I see it as I try to figure out what must be going through its mind to want to do this. I will try to get some pictures of this happening tonight.

[Wild Turkey]

Sounds like normal behavior.

However, theres is no "acceptable" range of ammonia or nitrite in an established tank they should both be zero constantly.

Strip tests?

If not, ppm?

[handrew]

I use liquid test kits to monitor my water parameters. My ammonia levels stay at 0 with an occasional "mini" spike at 0.25 ppm. This occurs rarely and if it does, it is usually following the cleaning of my filter. I suspect that this is due to the re-poplulation of Nitrosomonas europaea in the filter media. My nitrites stay at 0 and nitrates range between 0 and 2.5. The nitrates usually stay at the 0 end but the 2.5 does not worry me too much. The tank is planted and I would imagine a large portion of these would be taken up by them. I asked my bacterial physiology professor about this and he seems to agree. Either way, the values are consistent. I did check the values today as usual. Ammonia-0, nitrites-0, and nitrates-0.

[Wild Turkey]

How do you clean the filter?

You are correct, 2.5 nitrates is nothing and its most likely low due to the plants using a large portion of them.

Liquid tests are highly recommended, since strip tests accuracy is questionable, and easily effected by humidity.

[handrew]

I am using a Fluval 405. I usually just rinse the foam filter to remove the visible matter that has accumulated. I have the ceramic looking prefilter in the bottom basket. I rinse it also when it looks dirty. I usually do not do anything to the Biomax in the remaining baskets. I remove some of it every few weeks and replace it with new Biomax. I have probably three boxes of Biomax in the filter and never replace more than 1 box at a time. I also usually remove a little of it from each basket so that the bacteria can colonize it quicker. I use tap water when I was the foam filter and know that that is bad. I have never had a problem so far and have been using that method for some time now. I figure all I am doing is killing the bacterial colony in the foam but not the rest of the filter. I also know that chlorinated water will not kill all of the colony from the contact time that it is exposed to. Some will die but not the entire colony. There probably is as much lost from the mechanical agitation as from chlorine exposure. That was one of the things we talked about last semester in bacterial physiology. There has to be a prolonged contact time for chlorine to display antimicrobial effects and the concentration found in water is low enough to make that contact time even longer.

[Gemini]

I would use dechlorinated water to clean in - because any ammonia spikes are not good for your fish. It may not kill them but still it's like us walking around in heavy pollution for a day. It's not pleasant.
Otherwise your loach is being a loach. Mine does the same thing. He will make a figure 8 incorporating a loop around the filter suction caps, I think he sees his reflection - the tank lights are off but a room light is on. He looks like he's playing with his reflection.

[jaysee]

I use tap water when I was the foam filter and know that that is bad. I have never had a problem so far and have been using that method for some time now.

I do the same! Every 2 weeks I take out the mechanical parts of my filters and spray them clean. I even do complete gravel vacs with each water change - once a week. I know these are "bad" habits, but my amonia levels in every tank are a constant 0 with spikes to 0.03 ppm, 0.05 ppm if I over feed, which is rare. I never test for anything other than amonia. I do a lot of things "wrong", but it works for me and it works for them.

[mac]

Hi,

Yea my Kulies do that from time to time.
IMO and IME it is just normal thing they do. Probably trying to get out of the tank an don't know how to get out.

mac

[rlkramer1]

I have five java loaches (black kuhlies) and they make circles on the glass sides of the tank 24/7. Up and down, around and around, over and under rocks. They like to spiral up the stems of my plants. When the swim through the thicket of water sprite sometimes they just stop and hang there lightly wedged between a few leaves. Sounds pretty normal.