Where have my loaches gone?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

CannibalCrowley

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Messages
6
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
I have a 20 gal planted tank that was stocked with:
  • male betta
    African dwarf frog
    2 ottos
    3 zebra loaches
    some ghost shrimp

The loaches were added three weeks ago and everything has been going great. That is, until I went to do my PWC this weekend and noticed that 2 of them were missing. I looked around and couldn't find any trace of them, not even dead bodies.

Any idea what may have happened?
 
What type of substrate do you have? My horseface loaches hide in the subsrate a lot. I would look for them when the lights have been out for a bit...just sit down and don't move much, cause loaches tend to be shy. You might see them...
 
The substrate is eco-complete. I hope they are hiding, but I kind of doubt it because they've never done it before.

I know they didn't jump out because the top of the tank is completely covered, even where the filter hangs. Hiro (my betta) had a jumping problem so I took care of openings when he was a loner.
 
loaches can squeeze into the tiniest places. do you have rocks or driftwood? you'd be surprised how well they can hide. they are also nocturnal, and will come out to feed at night. try throwing in some food at lights out, and then looking for them--you can use a flashlight. i hardly ever see my loaches, especially my clown loaches, except if there's food around. i'd bet a dollar tht they're not dead and that they're hiding.

that being said, have you checked your water parameters? is everything in normal range? if so, and if they couldn't jump out, then they're probably hiding.
 
I do have driftwood, I guess they could be in the crack.

I guess I just think it's weird that suddenly two of them would turn fully nocturnal while the third still ventures out in the light. I'll try the flashlight test tonight.

I check my water before every pwc and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary this time.

Thanks everyone.
 
i have one clown loach in my 56 gallon and he is an unbelieveable hider... i was determined to find him one day while cleaning, and i lifted up the driftwood... nothing. I couldn't believe it, so finally i took the drift wood out to trim the moss and when i got it to the top of the water almost out, he apeared. He found this little cave in the bottom of the drift wood and hides in there, but its like 3" deep. They are excellent hiders, dont worry, they are in there
 
My clowns will sneak into cracks in the wood (they have 2 spots inparticular that they adore, one is in an elevated piece, if I look hard enough into the shadow I'll see some stripes, they can usually stack 2 in there. The other spot is in the peice of wood that is a maze.

The kuhlis, I haven't seen them in quite q while, except for the occasional glance of a tail. they will hide between the wood and the gravel or a rock and the gravel. unbelievable where they will hide.

I would check at night, just because they haven't hidden before, doesn't mean they didn't just take a liking to it.
 
First off, after looking at some pictures I've come to the conclusion that the pet store mislabeled Yoyo loaches as zebra loaches.

For the past 2 nights I've tried the food & flashlight method without luck. The one loach that's always visible always came out and gobbled up the food by himself, the few bits of leftovers were eventually eaten by my ADF. I guess I'll just write them off as an unsolved mystery.

Will the final loach be okay by himself?
 
yeah loaches are definitely great hiders. When i had my yoyo loach it hid in the substrate and under the decorations and in my driftwood. they are wiley little suckers!

dont count it out yet tho
 
Back
Top Bottom