Assume the tank is never empty of kuhlis
The first rule of moving kuhli loaches is that the drained tank still contains kuhli loaches. These slender, eel-like fish spend the day buried in substrate, threaded through driftwood, or packed inside filter housings and coconut caves, and a tank that looks completely empty usually holds most of its kuhlis. Plan the move around finding them rather than catching them: they travel in a smooth, tightly lidded container of tank water once found, but no travel setup helps a fish left behind in a bucket of gravel on a driveway. Give this species more time than any other in the tank.
Trap and lift, never chase with a net
Kuhli loaches have soft, scaleless skin and small fins, and a net dragged through gravel after a burrowing fish scrapes the very body it is trying to save. Work differently. Lift each hide, cave, and piece of wood straight into a bucket of tank water, where hidden kuhlis often emerge on their own once the bucket sits quietly. Set a small bottle trap or a smooth container baited and sunk into the substrate for the fish still in the open. For the last holdouts, lower the water to a shallow level and sift the substrate gently through your fingers into a tray, a handful at a time, feeling for the unmistakable wriggle rather than raking with tools.
Check the equipment like it is a hiding place
On a kuhli tank, the equipment is habitat. Strip the filter carefully over a bucket, because loaches work their way into intake gaps and media chambers and ride the filter to the rubbish pile in real moves. Shake out plant clumps into tank water, look inside hollow ornaments with a torch, and keep every removed item in water until it has been inspected twice. Count the kuhlis you have recovered against the number you believe you keep, knowing that this species is famously undercounted, and do not release the old tank, its gravel, or its decor until the count and a final sift agree.
A sealed, smooth journey for escape artists
Travel kuhlis in a container with a genuinely tight lid and no rough edges, and consider a layer of soft plant material in the water to give them something to tangle into, which settles them far better than an empty box. A kuhli can pass through a gap that looks far too small for it, so tape or weight the lid on a long drive and never use an open bucket. Keep the container dark and level, and avoid sudden temperature swings, since these are warm-water fish that chill quickly in a small volume. Their smooth skin also makes them sensitive to dirty travel water, so withhold food the day before the move.
Release into substrate, then count again quietly
Prepare the receiving tank with its sand or fine substrate and low hides already in place, because a kuhli released onto bare glass will spend its first hours frantically searching for burial. Match temperatures gradually, tip the loaches in gently with lights low, and let them vanish; disappearance is success with this species. Over the following evenings, count heads at feeding time when kuhlis emerge to forage, and watch for scraped skin, white patches, or a fish lying exposed in the open, which is unusual enough to justify advice from an aquatic veterinarian. Recording each kuhli's favourite hides and the agreed headcount on their shared KinsLe Family Sharing profile gives every helper the same checklist before the old tank is finally emptied.