Hidden Clown Loach

I have 2 different loaches in my 55 gallon. I put both of the in there on saturday. All was fine all weekend and through this morning. But now the clown loach is missing, i have removed the fake tree and other deco items looking for him, but with no luck. These are my first loaches and was wondering if i may be overlooking something. Do loaches tend to hide.

I know when I first got my BN he like to hide in the filter, is it possible that the clown is hiding from me?

did you check the filter?? under everything in the tank??

My prawn ate 3 of my Malawi's so look for anything aggresive in there.

Yes clowns will hide anywhere they can fit. They will also play dead, laying on their side and upside down so if he looks dead when you find him give him a poke before you get the net.

Fern wrote:

Yes clowns will hide anywhere they can fit. They will also play dead, laying on their side and upside down so if he looks dead when you find him give him a poke before you get the net.

lol thats soo funny!!! do they actually do that???
u got a vid of that??? haha

I've only seen mine do it 2 times. My friend had one that would always play dead or take naps call it what you want

Naps..... hahahah man i gotta get me some of those:)

Alk, they get very very big in a very short time, The will outgrow a 180g quickly.

i know they look kinda kreepy wen their all grown up!....the lfs has 1 bout 8" i think.....looks weird to me lol....o only like em wen their small:)
how fast though?

I've herd of them needing a 180g within 2 years

wow.............

well he showed his little face for about 30 minutes last night but now he is gone again. I guess the next time he comes out I will just have to watch and see where he is hidding.

My mom has one that burries itself in the gravel. She thought it was gone to.

Check your water conditions(pH, ammonia, temp ect).........Clown Loaches don't do well in high pH and most fish suffer if the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are even in low ranges..............................................Clown Loaches and many of the other Loaches and Botia do better in groups of three or more..........

well he has been caught. He is going into a hole in the bottom side of the fake tree in the middle of the tank. He came out and swam around for about 30 minutes,so i watched him. He turned upwards and swam right into the hole. I guess he likes it in there.

Should i try and block this hole off or just let it be?

I would leave the hole, cause if he really likes it.. he will find another !!!

CajunGator wrote:

I would leave the hole, cause if he really likes it.. he will find another !!!

cool leave him hes a loner

yeah leave in their!!! hes comftorble!!
you dont want ur fish being UN-comftorble do you?? lol
hell be fine

I took out all the rock one day and check them for my loach and he was not hiding in any rocks. Then I looked through all my gravel and nothing. He finally appeared after about 1 week. Now that I have more clown loaches they are always out.

I have a group of clown and a group of yoyos in one of my planted tank.. they love swimming around and chasing each other but at about 9-10pm each day, the clowns would go into the nooks and crannies of the driftwood and im guessing sleep until the morning. They have always done that, pretty cool i think.

I have had my clown loach for about over a year now and they barely grew an inch, they are not fast grower... it will take many many years for them to grow as big as the ones you see in lfs. Depending on the size of the aquarium they might not even grow as big.

Mine has doubled in size with in a month in a 20g.
Stunting fish intentionally is not humane.....