Hidden Loaches

[schooly20]

Alright so a couple weeks ago I posted about a Yo Yo loach I had that seemed to be attacking the rest of the fish in my tank and of course I was told because he isnt supposed to be alone. I had the room in my tank so when my LFS got there next shipment in with Yo Yo loaches on it I was the first there to pick some up. I was able to get 4 so now I have a total of 5 in my tank. Well now my concern is that I dont ever see the young smaller ones I just bought. Every once and a while I'll see one, but seriously I cant tell you if I still have them all or not since I havent seen all 5 loaches together since the day I put them in. I suspect they're eating, but cant really be sure. I guess my question is will they slowly become less shy and come out more or will they always be so scare. The one I've had for a while is very active and swims all over the place, I guess I just suspected when I got more they would be like him. Oh I just added the 4 little ones about 3 days ago.

 

[Colin_T]

They need time to settle in and are usually quite shy to start with. If the tank has plenty of hiding places (plants, wood, etc) then the loaches will start to come out and spend more time in the open when they feel secure. If there isn't much in the way of cover for the fish then they will spend most of the time hiding and come out at night when the lights are out.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I agree with Colin . I would also like to add that feeding the loaches very tasty/tempting food which keeps them out in the open for a long time can also help them become bolder- if you get a couple of de-shelled cooked king size prawns and attach them to a weight and sink them to the bottom of the tank in an open area, the loaches shouldn't be able to resist them and will spend a long time eating the prawns, which should help increase their confidence of being in the open .