I Have Two Missing Fish!?

[stitchbug]

I have 4 mystery snails, a black molly, and two red platy's. Recently, we got two clown loaches to take care of the snail problem. (We didn't know when we got them that they reproduce like crazy!)
We've had the loaches for about 4 days. All of a sudden, they are gone. Completely missing from the tank! We took out the rock they hide under, looked in the filter...they are just gone?!
Any ideas on what happened? Could the snails or other fish have eaten them?
I know they didn't jump out, bc the top of the tank was completely covered.
I'm completely confused!

 

[howard_hopkinson]

Clown loaches like to squeeze themselves into really tight places, so it's not unusual to not see them for a while.

If any of your decor is hollow, there's every chance the loaches will be hiding somewhere in it.

I have often had to remove decor and give it a bit of a shake, only to have my loaches plop back into the tank.

 

[stitchbug]

Clown loaches like to squeeze themselves into really tight places, so it's not unusual to not see them for a while.

If any of your decor is hollow, there's every chance the loaches will be hiding somewhere in it.

I have often had to remove decor and give it a bit of a shake, only to have my loaches plop back into the tank.

Thanks for the info, that is good to know!
this may be a stupid question...please forgive my fish ignorance...do they burrow at all in the gravel? bc we checked the rock and plants...we are so confused! LOL

 

[howard_hopkinson]

If your gravel is very fine, then it's entirely possible for your loaches to burrow into it.


However, my gravel is fine and so far, I have never had one of my loaches burrow completely into it, though they sure do make holes in it and move the gravel around quite a bit.