Missing Clown Loach

yhaneef · Mar 17, 2009

Hello Everyone,

I recently moved house and after i when i placed all the fishes back in the tank, all seemed well. They all survived the move.

In the tank I have

2 Angel fish
1 Huge Pelco
1 Clown Loach
1 Molly
15 Xray tetras
2 neon tertas
2 fan shrimp

I woke up the next day to find that my clown loach is missing (which is around 3 inches in length), no floating body piece, no dead body nothing. Could my fish have eaten it in the middle of the night?

Davo86 · Mar 17, 2009

Are you sure it isn't hiding? with having such a tramatic day with the move it would be natural for it to hide away for a few days afterwards,
Although a big common pleco could fairly easy consume a dead fish in a few hours

jonnyf84 · Mar 17, 2009

Could my fish have eaten it in the middle of the night?

No

loachman · Mar 17, 2009

Depends on the size of the other fish. It is possible to have a fish consumed quickly.

I'd see if it was hiding. It's amazing what they can wedge themselves into. I've seen loaches dig out along the back walls of a Q-tank and hide "under" the gravel. They're also known to wedge themselves into filter intakes and any decorations with an internal cavity.

brucethekoi · Mar 17, 2009

yhaneef said:
Hello Everyone,

I recently moved house and after i when i placed all the fishes back in the tank, all seemed well. They all survived the move.

In the tank I have

2 Angel fish
1 Huge Pelco
1 Clown Loach
1 Molly
15 Xray tetras
2 neon tertas
2 fan shrimp

I woke up the next day to find that my clown loach is missing (which is around 3 inches in length), no floating body piece, no dead body nothing. Could my fish have eaten it in the middle of the night?

I have an aquastyle 850 tank and my larger clown loach went missing for a day. I took everything out of the tank but still no joy. Finally I looked in the filter outlet which is well above the tank. I found him in about 1cm of water, he was still alive. He had swam up the filter return pipe and got into the filter - nutter! I have since placed a smaller pipe inside the return pipe to stop him doing this.

kirztie14 · Mar 17, 2009

loachman said:
Depends on the size of the other fish. It is possible to have a fish consumed quickly.

I'd see if it was hiding. It's amazing what they can wedge themselves into. I've seen loaches dig out along the back walls of a Q-tank and hide "under" the gravel. They're also known to wedge themselves into filter intakes and any decorations with an internal cavity.

yea i woul have to agree with this. My clown loach loves to wedge himself in, well abosolutly anywhere, expecially when he gets scared. his favourite hiding place is in the top of a shipwreck i have in the tank. Wont even come out if i lift the shipwreck out of the water, just tries to wedge itself in deeper!

PRW1988 · Mar 18, 2009

loachman said:
Depends on the size of the other fish. It is possible to have a fish consumed quickly.

No fish in that tank have teeth or are very agressive.

Chances are it's hiding under a rock or inside of one of the ornaments. Check if any of the fake rocks/decorations you have has holes in them. That's more than likely where you'll find the Clown loach.

yhaneef · Mar 18, 2009

well i had alook around, i upturned all the bog wood and rocks and nothing, there is an orniment that has a hole (but i turned that upside down and nothing)

i am thinking the worst....... I dont know weather to replace it with another one.....

S

Athena · Mar 18, 2009

Don't be surprised if you see it appear in a day or two. Sometimes they are so good at hiding that you think they've been eaten but then they reappear! My two used to burrow into the gravel, or hang over the suction caps of the filter or thermometer.

Can I ask how big your tank is?

Athena

yhaneef · Mar 18, 2009

Ok i will have another propper look tonight when i get back from work

100L tank...

I was thinking about getting some bolivian rams.. i had some before (a few years ago), but they died very quickly.. Any ideas on how to care for them?

Athena · Mar 18, 2009

Hi - if the clowns don't appear in the next week, I wouldn't replace them - they really need a larger tank than 100litre as they grow so huge and you already have a large plec in there.

Yes, Bolivian Rams are quite sensitive to water chemistry changes so you have to really keep on top of water changes every week and keep an eye on them constantly to note any change in behaviour or colour. Not the easiest of fish to keep, really, although they are a bit hardier than the German Blue Rams.

Athena