Clown Loaches Gone Missing? Help!

[jenny6165]

i brought home 3 clown loaches on friday. they were all swimming about fine friday. Saturday morning 2 were missing, but i presumed they were hiding. Then saturday night the third disappeared.
Today, they are still missing, i have moved all the caves and plants one by one, not removing them, just picking them up.
i still cant find them. there is no where left for them to hide. ive checked the filter, not there.

all 3 of them are about 2", so not small fish, how can they go missing. ive checked my water stats, all ok. did a gravel vac, cant find any remains.
they were all healthy when i did see them, no sign of illness.

what could of happened to them??

 

[karin15]

yep the first time I saw a fish go missin without a trace I reacted the same way...two posiblitys 1 its jumped out check behind your tank, 2 it got eaten a full grown pleco could problably do it.

 

[DarkEntity]

What was in the tank with them?

 

[jenny6165]

ok, checked behind tank... no sign.
the plecos are only about 2.5" in length and are scared of their own shadow.

im never too alarmed when my plecs disappear, cos i know they are really shy.
before when a fish has disappeared, ive found it dead somewhere, cept for the missing ram who ive never found. but for 3 quite big fish to disappear... i mean, id understand if maybe one went missing...but no sign of three?

What was in the tank with them?

in my signature
as above the plecs are still really small, the puffers are only an inch long and are really docile, but will be moving to another tank soon.
i watch my fish alot, and the only one who seems the smallest amount aggressive is the angel fish, hes only a baby still though and he will just nip any of the fish who try to steal his food sometimes.

 

[karin15]

hmmm... hmmm... well then so the suspects are small pleck afraid of there own shadow, dwarf puffers who make up for size with gutz and an evil decoration that hides them, leave this one to detective karin
these are the facts, young clowns are supppper delicate, there hardy once they get big, I don't think anything in your tank could have gobled zem up hole monami so that leaves two posibilitys: 1 they are hideing look harder!
2 I stole them wile you were asleep because of there cuteness! ^^ I confess it was all me! :'( I'm guilty lock me up... ... I'm not crazy... just hyper...hyper girls are dangerous...

thats a tough one I cant help you, loaches like to get into little cracks in drift wood and stuff like that and wont even come out if you pull them out of the watter, its not to uncommon for fish to swim in the filter, I dont think there dead because you would ave found them floating dead when you lifted your stuff up (when you do find them make sure to feed them blood worms its there favorit food)

 

[jenny6165]

lol.

well im suprised they didnt come out this morning, i chucked in a cube of frozen bloodworm.
oh i hate it when fish go missing... how can three fish go missing at the same time... its a conspiracy!!!!

i just.. dont get it.

im not gonna forget this until they turn up ykno. its gonna drive me insane.. argh!

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I am willing to bet that they are still in there. If you have a cave or any decor that the clown loaches can hide up near the top, they could be there. I have a ceramic tree stump decor and it has some tiny little spots from the mold that clown loaches hide in. They can get themselves into some pretty small spots and are usually adept hiders at least at first when they are easily scared and reclusive. I would think that if they are dead, you would see a water issue in one form or another. I highly doubt a pleco would completely eat any fish, but they might suck on a dead fish. Still, you would see some of it still in the tank. How big is your pictus cat? They can eat a fish as well, but their size would determine how large a fish it can get into its mouth.

I still bet they are in there. Try taking everything out, one by one, and looking up into decorations and/or all the little spots a fish can wedge themselves into.

 

[jenny6165]

the pictus is still a baby too.
im also determined they are still in there, but i already had all the decorations out last week tryin to find a dead angel. argh.
*sighs*
ok, i will go take everything out... or its going to torment me...
will let u know... dum dum dummmm

 

[karin15]

I am willing to bet that they are still in there. If you have a cave or any decor that the clown loaches can hide up near the top, they could be there. I have a ceramic tree stump decor and it has some tiny little spots from the mold that clown loaches hide in. They can get themselves into some pretty small spots and are usually adept hiders at least at first when they are easily scared and reclusive. I would think that if they are dead, you would see a water issue in one form or another. I highly doubt a pleco would completely eat any fish, but they might suck on a dead fish. Still, you would see some of it still in the tank. How big is your pictus cat? They can eat a fish as well, but their size would determine how large a fish it can get into its mouth.

I still bet they are in there. Try taking everything out, one by one, and looking up into decorations and/or all the little spots a fish can wedge themselves into.

thats basicaly what I said

yeah do it... do it... do it or ill kill you, what the heck has gotten into us karin?

you need to get yourself a butterfly fish. no tank is complete without one.

 

[jenny6165]

ok... well...
i found them.....

i took everything out, no luck under anything. i had all ornaments sitting on side.
then ithought to myself... i wonder...
i have a root ornament in my tank, that fills with water at the top to weigh it down... really small hole...

well, not really thinkin theyd be there, i emptied the water in my sink! oops.

well, out comes a clown loach... down the sink so i think.. ####... better put the plug in... tap the ornament bit more... out comes my pleco thats been missing that i wasnt too worried bout cos hes shy!!! realise theres no water in the sink, quickly fill it up with cold water!! and out comes second loach. dont know where third is, think perhaps he fell down sink too , it all happened so quick, its possible i didnt see him come out! gutted!

so, i now have one loach, who looks a bit pale, and my pleco who im hoping will be ok after his ordeal, even after plunging into cold water

erm, so thats it, end of mystery... hope loach isnt still in ornament, ive not put a rock on top of the hole!

 

[mikster]

Im guessing you never thought if this before but you could have just emptied the water back into the tank? ALso u seem to have had a few fish dieing recently, are your water stats ok and everything? any clue as to why they died?

 

[jenny6165]

hi there,
no strangely i didnt think of it before. i even purposely left the water in it when i took it out of the tank to avoid more water everywhere! even when i poured it out in the sink i still didnt believe any fish could get in there.

the angel that died had swim bladder. no idea why the ram died. water stats are all fine...
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10
ph about 7.5

the fish that died were all from a pretty rubbishy lfs, so i dont buy from there anymore, so perhaps thats why.

 

[Underwurlde]

well, out comes a clown loach... down the sink confused.gif so i think.. ####... better put the plug in... tap the ornament bit more... out comes my pleco thats been missing that i wasnt too worried bout cos hes shy!!! realise theres no water in the sink, quickly fill it up with cold water!! and out comes second loach. dont know where third is, think perhaps he fell down sink too , it all happened so quick, its possible i didnt see him come out! gutted!

Definately something wrong with the water in Surrey....

1) It's effecting your fish.
2) Stop drinking it.

 

[karin15]

well, out comes a clown loach... down the sink confused.gif so i think.. ####... better put the plug in... tap the ornament bit more... out comes my pleco thats been missing that i wasnt too worried bout cos hes shy!!! realise theres no water in the sink, quickly fill it up with cold water!! and out comes second loach. dont know where third is, think perhaps he fell down sink too , it all happened so quick, its possible i didnt see him come out! gutted!

Definately something wrong with the water in Surrey....

1) It's effecting your fish.
2) Stop drinking it.

eeeeww lol
ok ok look you need to get him a friend they are very shy and delicate at that age, and for small holes and creveses just go to the pet store buy a filter spong and cut it up and stuff peaces into the what ever you dont want your fish getting into, I did this to my drift wood to stop my sinyo from spending all his days in a tiny hole, make shure to stuff alot in because the sponge will just fall out unless you reayl pack it (it should turn a sort of brownish color and be coverd with bactiera after a few weeks.

hope this helps...

blue rams are prone to bactieral infection, mine could bearly eat and then he died.

oh I almost forgot whats your water ph?

 

[jenny6165]

water ph is around 7.5, the test is a bit hazy on that being a colour chart.

i will go get him a friend as soon as i can, need to clear up the white spot in my tank first

for now ive put a rock on top of the ornament where the hole is, but i do need to put sponge in, thats a good idea, as the rock falls off everytime i sort something out in the tank and its hitting the glass