Making my black kuhlis more comfy?

Herbicide

I've had a couple of black kuhlis in my 20 gallon for about a month. I have fallen completely in love with them. They are just so cute. I have regular-sized aquarium gravel and they have a difficult time burrowing in it. They like to squeeze under the driftwood, but I wish I could give them a way to burrow. Any clever suggestions? Like a tube under the gravel, or a little patch of sand just for them?

iamntbatman

Swapping out all of the gravel for sand would be a great idea as they love to burrow. Do you only have the two of them? Getting more is a good idea as they're schooling fish that like the company of more of their own species.

Herbicide

Yeah, I do have only two but I'm almost fully stocked. I'd love more though.

iamntbatman

This is the 20g? I think you could fit a few more. Kuhli loaches have a very light bioload.

Herbicide

Yup, the 20 gal.
Alright, thanks for the advice! I'll get more as soon as I can. How many more do you think?
Also, I might eventually opt for all sand, but since I don't see that as a possibility right now, what do you think of a little loach "sandbox" for them. I could get some kind of container about the height of the gravel (or a little taller), fill it up with aquarium sand, and stick it into the gravel. I can't really find any info on people doing this, but it seems like it might work.
Only problems would be:
The sand might just come out of the container when they burrow,
Might look weird (but I could hide it behind stuff)
I don't know. Does this seem better than not having any sand? Or should I not bother?

iamntbatman

I remember someone else talking about doing that sort of thing. It might work but again it might not because it might just get thrown out of the box and mixed in with the gravel. I would get at least three more loaches.

Herbicide

You'll be pleased to hear that I now have a third black kuhli and two regular (stripey) kuhlis, for a grand total of 5 kuhlis. I absolutely adore them!
The black ones are currently quite a bit larger than the stripey ones but the stripey ones get bigger than the black ones, so we'll see :)

iamntbatman

Do they all hang out together? They're a different species but the same genus so maybe they can't tell the difference between one another.

Herbicide

Well I was told by the guy at the store (not always a reliable source, I know) that they would all hang out together, and aqadvisor.com said "Warning: At least any combination of 5 are recommened from (Kuhli Loach, Black Kuhli) as they will shoal together." But I always see the 2 striped kuhlis together and the 3 black ones together, but usually not all together in a group of 5...

mjbn

Wondering.. How did you accommodate their burrowing needs? I'm sorta in the same situation. I'd love to make them happier, especially since they're only a day old and i want to make them more comfortable in a new tank.