Can a beginner fish keeper keep kuhli loaches?

[GreenGuy]

My friend wants to get into the hobby, and has a 70 gallon tank he wants to use.
He has had no previous fish keeping experience, but is set on getting a kuhli loach. Is it possible for him to keep them alive? I have heard that they are hard for beginners due to their small scales making them more susceptible to diseases

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yes, it's possible, if your friend is willing to do the research and create a habitat suitable for them. First thing he should learn is that they should be kept in groups, and he could have quite a lot of them in a 70g. The second thing to know about this species is that, if you are only "keeping them alive," you'll never see them. But if they are healthy and thriving, they are interesting and entertaining fish.

Read up on them here:

Pangio semicincta – ‘Kuhli’ Loach (Acanthophthalmus semicinctus, Pangio kuhlii) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Colin_T]

Yes beginners can keep Khuli loaches. Get them to cycle the tank first so the filters are established. have lots of plants. Get healthy fish.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

...And I'll re-emphasise the need for them to be in fairly large groups.
Normally, they're relatively crepuscular, if not positively nocturnal, however...
In larger groups and in a well-planted tank, with lots of hidey holes, they appear to show more confidence and show themselves more.

NOTE No.1...That these eel-like fish do like to explore every little hole and crevice, so you need to take this into account and provide physical guards to stop 'em wriggling into your filter. (I once lost half a dozen of the critters and found them, several months later, when attempting to clean out my undergravel filter. Seems they'd found a new home down there and chose to significantly multiply.

NOTE No.2...these are probably the hardest fish to catch with a net in an aquarium, so be sure that you want them and you want them in that tank.