Clown Loaches Disappeared

[gblaca]

2 Clown Loaches out of 3 completely disappeared in 1 day, and I can't find them anywhere outside the tank either. Previously they lived for a couple of weeks in a hollow artificial log, but I rarely saw them if ever come out, and I removed that log and they hid away in the plants. Originally I bought them to eat the excess number of Malaysian snails that have multiplied in profuse numbers and invaded my tank. Instead of burrowing in the gravel, they have been eating up the leaves of my Amazon Sword Plants.

Can Clown Loachs possibly bury themselves deep in the gravel?

It's a mystery and I have no idea what happened to them. I checked around outside the tank and they are nowhere to be found either.

Any idea what happened to them?

 

[tonyale]

2 Clown Loaches out of 3 completely disappeared in 1 day, and I can't find them anywhere outside the tank either. Previously they lived for a couple of weeks in a hollow artificial log, but I rarely saw them if ever come out, and I removed that log and they hid away in the plants. Originally I bought them to eat the excess number of Malaysian snails that have multiplied in profuse numbers and invaded my tank. Instead of burrowing in the gravel, they have been eating up the leaves of my Amazon Sword Plants.

Can Clown Loachs possibly bury themselves deep in the gravel?

It's a mystery and I have no idea what happened to them. I checked around outside the tank and they are nowhere to be found either.

Any idea what happened to them?

look in filter gravle are there any fish that can eat them

 

[aquariumart22]

My guess would be either they got eaten by your other fish, assuming you have others.. The same thing happened to me, I had a conch shell in my tank at the time and I had cleaned it many times after the disappearance and on one cleaning occasion a partial body came out I guess it either died in the shell, got suck way up inside and died, or died when i took the shell out for cleaning. I have no idea. Needless to say that shell will not be used in any aquariums anymore.

I don't know what kind of decor you have if any, but they may have tried to wedge themselves in something. Thats just my experience

 

[gblaca]

After being totally convinced that the 2 Clown Loaches disappeared I just woke up and in the peace of the tank with no lights on, one of the beautiful 3 inch clown loaches just regally swam through the middle of the tank. No sighting of the 2nd one. Apparently they hate light. I just hope that the excess of Malaysian Trumpet snails that I have in my aquarium is sufficient diet for them.

My inventory of fish they currently are 4 male guppies and 3 female guppies, about 10 baby guppies (I have never fed them even a speck of baby food but they have survived for a couple of weeks), 11 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Otocinclus, and now 1 Clown Loach confirmed and 1 Clown Loach missing. Maybe there is hope that the 2nd Clown Loach still is alive or else it is dead in it's hiding place like the 3rd one was in the hollow log.

How will I ever see the Clown Loaches again?

 

[aquariumart22]

I had my two new clown loaches in with my more aggressive fish, not really knowing much about them.. One of them would hide in the barnacles i had and completely lay i thought it was dead many times. I could see him a little bit just laying there colorless. So I decided to try to move them to my other tank with my mollies and angle fish.

He instantly started swimming around and became very social even with the light on. Hes been like that ever since! So my guess is that he was scared of something in the other tank. Also there are no dark hiding spots in the new tank, so he really has no choice! He seems really happy now though.

Maybe look into moving them or getting another tank. It solved my problems

 

[onebto]

"How will I ever see the Clown Loaches again?"

If you think its to small a space for a Clown to get in it then you are sadly mistaken, there masters of getting in things sometimes not so good at getting out.

Clown loach are nocturnal but they do get acclimatised and eventually you will see them in the day but you will need a few more things they do like exploring as in the wild they cover huge distances up and down rivers searching for food talking of food what are you feeding them they like a large range of foods.

A little patience it takes time for Clown loach to settle in,

more caves and hiding places its an odd mathematical equation but the more you have the less they will use them although they do like there down time,

This is the tough one you need more Clown loach as they are VERY VERY social fish and feel more confident with more of there own there is a flip side to this in that you need a large tank for Clown loach this is were tank size is important as mentioned before they like exploring plus you need to take into mind there eventual size I am not sure what size tank you have? But Clowns can live 20 to 30 years in good conditions and they can get big and bulky the classic 6X2X2 FT tank is thought to be the basic size tank, that's not to say a 4 ft will be ok for juveniles for a year or two.

Tank mates? aggressive fish and fish that erratically dart around will make your Clowns skittish and want to hide all the time, of course to aggressive and large then yes your AWOL Clown may have become dinner.

Finally I will say buying Clown loach to get rid of snails is a really really bad idea LFS love giving that really bad bit of advice like all fish species they need specific conditions and should be researched and diligently supplied.

So you have to ask yourself a question do you want to become a keeper of Clown loach? if so you need to read up on them a start would be the entry in this forums Fish species index link below but there is alot more out there on the web. If you got 3 to get rid of snails then discovered that you cannot supply a proper home then re homing the little guys is your best bet for there sake. I will finish by saying if you study the species requirements and supply them then you will not be disappointed as they are a fantastic fish.

Hope this is useful Regards Onebto.