Missing loach

[LandGhoti]

So I bought 3 clown loaches today and now one of them is missing...

Have checked the floor, beneath the aquarium under the cabinet, the ledge on the back of the hood, the filter (although don't know how it could've gotten in), rocks, and even my cats' breath. Apparently, he is Houdini. Here they are not long after being let out of the bag.

Now the remaining two are sitting on opposite ends of the tank, mourning.

I have a friend with a saltwater tank who had this happen: one fish just disappeared.
I have never "lost" a fish.
Has anyone else ever had this happen?

 

[WaterPond]

loaches are master hiders. I am sure it will turn up, good luck

 

[Cinder]

Do you have any indoor pets like cats, birds, dogs, etc.? If it jumped out of the tank it could have been lunch by one of them.
What size tank is it? What other inhabitants are in the tank besides the loaches?

 

[gheitman]

What kind of filter do you have? Loaches are famous for disappearing down the uplift tube and going underneath the filter plate of UGFs.

 

[LandGhoti]

The loaches are my first fish, so just them for now. I have a 29 gal.

I do have two cats, but I think I would've heard a scuffle or something since the one that would've eaten him would've made a big deal about it. Plus the cats don't get behind the cabinet because they are too big (fat? haha).

I did look beneath the cabinet at the underside of the UGF and didn't see anything but I'll look again. At one point tonight, I did see all three of them after Houdini had gone missing, and then 5 minutes later I couldn't find ANY of them. Since then, I have thrown in a veggie pellet and two of them have come out to pick at it.

Thanks for the input. I hope you are right, WaterPond, and he does turn up again. Maybe they are playing a loach shell game with me and a different one hides each time.

 

[Asher]

I has a khuli loach once that I "lost" and assumed dead and eaten. I had the tank and other fish for at least a year after he dissapeared and finally decided that I was going to quit tanking for a while. I retrieved all of the fish and put them into butter containers and then took out all the plants and started to pull the black plastic filters from under the gravel when I saw a little wiggling tail in the white gravel. There he was...still alive and FAT!! He had burrowed underneath the gravel and lived under the filtration for over a year! I couldn't believe it. I gave him to a relative that kept him for over another year and I'n not sure what happened to him after that, but loaches are amazing at dissapearing.

My brother had a khuli that would swim up his filter intake pipe, live in the back of the filter to eat food from the cartridge and then would swim with the water flow and plop back in the tank at night...crazy...

 

[LandGhoti]

LOL Asher!

After a night of lights out, this morning I walked out to all three wiggling around like crazy and darting all over. Two of them were taking turns swimming up to the powerhead and riding the jet halfway across the tank. I watched them for so long that I was late(r than usual) for work.

The next time one of them turns up "missing" I guess I won't worry...

 

[catfishattack]

My loaches used to hide so well and I had to spend some quality time trying to find them. Sometimes I just gave up.

 

[Cinder]

LandGhoti - I'm so glad you found all of them. Loaches are the best hiders, especially when they are small. I hate to rain on your joy but thought you would want to know that Clown loaches get quite big and should be kept in tanks at least 120 gln. in size! Having your three in a 29 gln. tank is going to stunt their growth and I'm sure that you don't want that seeing how concerned you obviously are about them. It is great that you have three as they are schooling fish and should always be in groups of no less than three. But, your tank is way, way too small so you need to consider either upgrading as soon as possible or returning them to the fish store and finding fish that fit your size tank. Good luck.

 

[LandGhoti]

Thanks for the advice, Cinder. I've been reading that a lot on here, about loach size, etc. I had one a long time ago in an 18-gal and he was fine (although I guess stunted?). For now the three are fine, and eventually I probably will upgrade to a larger tank. If I don't, I'll take them back the LFS where I got them.

 

[hc8719]

I has a khuli loach once that I "lost" and assumed dead and eaten

did you write an article about that on the internet? think i read that, though im sure lots of people have had this experience with those stupid little fish

 

[Orbus]

Ah, the Kuhli Loach. I used to have one of those guys. He would disappear for weeks and/or months on end, and then suddenly reappear out of nowhere, fat and happy. Almost died a couple times in mass tank die-off events. Was even floating on the top. And then he snapped out of it and bounced back. Ended up outliving almost every other fish in the tank.

Thinking about getting like three of them for my new tank I'm setting up. I've got a sand substrate this time though, so I'm afraid they'll burrow in and never be seen again. I do hear they're more active and hide less if you've got more than one. Strength in numbers.

Another possibility I'm thinking about is the Angelicus Loach. Seem to be about on par in size.