Shelford's kuhli loach

Pangio shelfordii

Also known as Borneo loach, Shelford's prickly eye, Hair band kuhli loach

FreshwaterFish

Shelford's kuhli loach (Pangio shelfordii) — The Wet Spot Tropical Fish · Used with permission

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–81°F (22–27°C)
pH: 5.5–7.0
Adult size: 3.1 in (8 cm)
Minimum tank: 24 gal (90 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Malay Peninsula, Singapore and Borneo
Family: Cobitidae

Overview

By kuhli standards this is a confident fish, often out cruising the glass at dusk rather than staying buried. Keep six or more with calm, small tankmates, and it rewards you with far more daytime activity than most of its cousins. It is peaceful and ignores other fish, so quiet company such as small rasboras and pygmy corydoras works well. Feed small sinking foods, frozen bloodworm, and live blackworm, and let a mature litter bed grow the tiny life it hunts. A group needs a little more room than the smaller kuhlis, so give it around 90 liters over soft sand.

In the wild

Shelford's kuhli ranges from the Malay Peninsula through Singapore to Borneo, in peat swamps and soft, tannin-stained forest streams over sand. Set it up as blackwater: a soft sand bed, deep leaf litter, driftwood, low light, and slow flow. Keep it warm at 22 to 27 degrees Celsius and soft and acidic, with pH from 5.5 to 7.0. It likes to pack into a single nook to rest, so give it caves and root tangles to share.

Good to know

Pangio shelfordii belongs to the eel-loach family Cobitidae and reaches about 8 centimeters, making it one of the larger kuhlis. Instead of clean bands it wears broken, marbled blotches, which makes it one of the easier members of the group to identify, though its patterning varies a lot between populations. The species honors Robert Shelford, an early naturalist and museum curator in Borneo. There is no dependable record of it spawning in captivity.

Did you know

Among the near-identical noodles of the kuhli tanks, this one stands out for its mottled, marbled sides rather than tidy stripes. It is named after Robert Shelford, who curated the Sarawak Museum in Borneo in the early 1900s.

Tank mates

Shelford's kuhli loach is a peaceful, social species that keeps to the bottom. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.