Lead with the sentence that prevents panic
Written instructions for a kuhli loach should open with the single most useful sentence: you will probably not see these fish, and that is fine. Kuhli loaches are slender, banded burrowers that wedge into sand, leaf litter, and the seams of driftwood by day, then pour out after dark to forage. A sitter who understands this writes calm reports; a sitter who does not may lift rocks, stir the substrate, or overfeed a tank they believe is empty. Follow the reassurance with the group's size and their favourite two or three hiding structures by name and position, so 'the log on the left' becomes a shared reference point.
The feeding lines, timed to darkness
Feeding lines in a kuhli loach note must fix the clock. Specify the sinking pellet, wafer fragment, or thawed food the loaches actually receive, pre-portioned into labelled pots, and direct the sitter to offer it shortly after the tank lights go out — or in a shaded tank, at the same evening hour each visit. Drop it beside the loaches' usual foraging patch rather than mid-tank, where snails and midwater fish intercept it. State the rest plainly: no daytime top-ups, no extra pot because the fish 'seemed active', and any completely uneaten portion gets mentioned in the daily message rather than compensated for the following night.
Hiding places are not to be searched
The handling rules in a kuhli loach note protect its shelters. Driftwood, caves, and leaf litter stay exactly where they are; the sitter is not to lift, tap, or rearrange anything to 'check' on the occupants, because a crushed burrow or a loach pinned under a shifted stone is a real holiday accident. Cleaning instructions shrink to glass viewing only — no substrate vacuuming, no plant thinning mid-trip. If a loach is spotted draped over a leaf or lying curved on its side in the open, the note should call this the well-known kuhli sprawl, a resting pose, while a fish found motionless outside the tank or floating is an emergency message, not a wait-and-see.
Lid, gaps, and equipment in writing
Equipment lines in a kuhli loach note focus on containment. Kuhlis explore upward along airlines and filter intakes and can exit through gaps a finger's width wide, so instruct the sitter to reseat the lid fully after feeding, confirm feeding hatches click shut, and never leave the tank open while fetching food. Add three observational checks per visit: filter flowing, heater indicator behaving as described, thermometer in its usual warm range — with instructions to report deviations to the owner rather than unplug, adjust, or open anything. For a power cut, the note gives the owner's number and the location of any battery air pump, in that order.
When the note says to escalate
Escalation lines in a kuhli loach note separate odd from urgent. Odd but acceptable: glass-dancing along the front pane before a weather change, a group forage in daylight after feeding, one loach visible at noon. Urgent: repeated surface gasping, many loaches frantic at the outlet, cloudy or foul water, a stopped filter, or a death anywhere in the tank — these trigger an immediate call, and an aquatic vet or experienced fish shop if the owner is unreachable. Ask for a phone photo or short video with any report, since describing a banded fish in dim water defeats most vocabularies. Keeping the whole note in a KinsLe Care Pass gives your sitter temporary access to it at the tank side, so the lights-out feeding and no-searching rules hold for the entire holiday.