Five 2.5 inches clown loaches are missing?

[thang45]

You guys are not going to believe this. When I woke up this morning I realized that I haven’t been seeing any of my clown loaches lately, so I decided to go downstairs and have a look. As I suspected, I don’t see any of them.:confused:

I have 7 discus, 6 corys and 4 rummy nose tetra. The tank is 90 gal BB and with a driftwood in the center. I have looked around the bottom of the tank to see if any of them have jumped out but find nothing. What is going on? :(

Do you think the discus might have eaten them? These loaches are very fast and big so I don’t know why all five have been missing. This is freaky, no sign of their bodies lying around.:scared:

[t_j]

How big is the driftwood could they be under it? What about the back of the tank did you look back there?

[alpine]

most likely they are in some crevises inside the driftwood, unless the kitty cat wasnot fed last night ;)

roberto.

[lhforbes12]

I agree with Tiffany and Roberto. We have 6 in the 125 that are all about 5" TL now, we very seldom see them. Their home is a resin "driftwood" that is hollow. It always amazes us that all 6 can fit in there. There is literally no way a discus would be able to eat them.

[crazie.eddie]

Clown loaches like to cram inside small places. Look in your driftwood. Also, I'm not sure what type of filter you have, but if you have tubing that is large enough for loaches to go through, check there as well. Loaches like current and tend to swim towards it, like swimming upstream. So check the tubings, intakes, etc. if they look like the loaches can fit through them.

[Ed13]

most likely they are in some crevises inside the driftwood, unless the kitty cat wasnot fed last night ;)

roberto.

It has happen to me once or twice already in other peoples tanks, I removed large pieces of wood to do some maintenance work only to hear weird sounds coming from the wood a couple of minutes later, almost dried loaches is something the clients don't really like! ;)

[poconogal]

I had a loach that used to jump into my power filter box and hang out inside the filter. When I first started keeping fish, I had a loach that used to cram himself inside a tiny little treasure chest that I had in the tank. I was franticly looking for him all over the place. I just happened to pick up the ornament and he scooted out. I'm sure yours are in your tank somewhere.

[bz79]

Also check ANY tube of any kind. Lift tubes, sponge filter tubes, canister filter tubes/hoses, etc. will all provide a place for them to hide.

[thang45]

Thanks guys for the tips.

I don't have anything that they can fit in.

5 of them are 2 to 3 inches. I have an eheim 2217 and driftwood, I have checked around the tank and saw nothing. The only thing I could think of is when I do my WC using the python all 5 loaches got suck out. But this is pretty unlikely because I think the hole is too small, but again anything could happen.

I really like the loaches, they are fun to watch. I guess I have to be very careful of doing WC from now on.

[thang45]

most likely they are in some crevises inside the driftwood, unless the kitty cat wasnot fed last night ;)

roberto.

Hey Roberto.

I tried to feed the kitty with another fish, but they refuse to eat it. So I think it is safe to say that it was not the kitty :p

lhforbes12:

I took Tiffany's and Roberto's advice and lift the driftwood out of the water and 2 loaches start to come out. I started to look into that tiny little hole and I think I saw 2 more. This is unreal 5 of them can actually fit it there.:confused:

Thank you everyone :) . For a second there I wanted to kill all the cats around this area because of Roberto. I’m so glad I did not do that. :D