Feed your kuhli loaches sinking foods: community or micro pellets, sinking wafers, gel food, and frozen or live bloodworms, daphnia, brine shrimp or blackworms. They are bottom-feeding, mostly nocturnal micropredators, so a varied meaty diet matters more than vegetables.
What foods suit kuhli loaches?
- Sinking pellets and wafers, including shrimp or carnivore formulas.
- Gel food, which they pick at slowly.
- Frozen foods such as bloodworms, daphnia, brine shrimp and micro worms.
- Live blackworms, daphnia or micro worms as a treat.
In the wild they sift the substrate for tiny invertebrates. Dried food alone works, but live or frozen foods a few times a week keep them in better shape.
Skip algae tablets and chopped vegetables. Kuhlis don’t graze algae or eat plants, and they won’t use these foods, so they just rot.
How often should you feed kuhli loaches?
Feed once a day, or once in the evening with the lights low, in an amount they finish within a few minutes. Feeding two or three times a day, as often advised, isn’t needed and fouls the water. Count the loaches that show up to eat; if you rarely see them, feed after lights out so faster tank mates don’t take everything.
Why aren’t my kuhli loaches eating?
Kuhlis are shy, slow eaters. They may be hiding, outcompeted by faster fish, or stressed in a group of fewer than five or six. Make sure:
- The substrate is soft sand, not sharp gravel, so they can dig and bury themselves.
- There are plenty of hiding places such as driftwood and leaf litter.
- The water is clean, about 70 to 79°F, and has a tight lid. Kuhlis can jump.
Remove uneaten food after a few hours.
What to watch for
Thin, sunken bellies or loaches that never come out to eat suggest underfeeding or bullying. Buried loaches that emerge when frozen food is dropped in are normal.