Clown Loaches

[FiremanSam]

G'day All,

I have 2 Clown Loaches they are about 2 inches long each and they just manage to disappear into thin air. I have checked under the log that I have in my tank and under the rock ornament I have but they are not there. They come out when I feed the rest of the the tank blood worms (Once a week). Any ideas wherew they go do they bury themselves at all I have 1/4 inch pee gravel as my subrate. Other tank occupates are as follows


5 x Sissor tails
1 x Bala Shark ( Still trying to find a home for him)
8 Guppies ( 2M 6F)
6 Cardinal Tetras
2 Bristle Nose Catfish (1M 1F)
2 Khulie Loaches

Tank size 150 litres 3ft 1200 l/hr canister filter
All chemistry looks good

I know these guys are nocturnal but I'm usually up til 1-2 am and they don't seem to come out then

Cheers in advances for any ideas.

 

[gangeox]

I would turn the lights off, including the room lights, to see if they come out, the lights maybe too bright, have you got moonlights fitted? that may help.
(Just my thoughts)

 

[lilfishie]

they tend to get in to the smallest gaps they can find in ornaments, well mine does anyway, as said try turning off the light and seeing if they come out

 

[Dagu]

That used to happen in my old tank with some small clown loaches, I found out they were goin into an ornament then squeezing into gaps that seem much too small. So they used to spend 95% percent of their time in there and by filling up the gaps they could not get in anymore. But in my new tank the loaches very rarely hide - but this is just my experences!!

Moving ornaments or getting decor where they carn't hide in much could help!!

 

[alexdallimore]

Mine do the same. They burry themselves under the bogwood and foce the gravel away. 3 of them squeeze ov top of each other to ger in and if I change it round they always find another hiding place if they want.

 

[FiremanSam]

Thats a relief I thought I was going nuts, one minute they were there and the next they would just up and disappear. This moring when I got up though that we both swimming around happy as you please.

 

[gsta13]

If you boost there numbers a little they should become more outgoing.
But your tank wont be able to hold em all there life.
Jus incase you didnt know
Greg

 

[F.O.H]

when i bought my gf one she loved it and it dissapeared its not as if she has alot of ornamnets or plants in her tank she has two little cylinder shaped rocks with the smallest hole in each and a few long thin plants which yu can see through and it turned out the clown loach was hiding during day light in these tiny holes in the rocks i would never of thought they could fit but they proved me wrong, any you should check every little hole possible

 

[FiremanSam]

They haven't been in the tank for very long about a month so they might still be getting use to their surroundings.

Thanks gsta13 I know they can get pretty big, I thought I would keep them until they got to about 6 inches and then give them/ or try to swap them with my LFS. They were a rescue mission along with the 2 khulie loaches, which I haven't seen since I put them in the tank. I was a bit worried with the foot print (3ft x about 21 inches) of my tank that I might have to many bottom feeders can anyone tell me? Also from the list at the beginning of the post should I be feeding them more then 3 algae wafers a night? Didn't want to over feed them, but since I don't seem to have any algae left in my tank didn't want them to starve either.

As always all help is greatly appreciated.