Missing clown loach

[FishDad]

Hi, its been a while since I have posted due to relatively smooth sailing with my cichlids. However recently I had a snail bloom in my 70gal african tank. So after some recearch I decided to add a clown loach to the mix. He was almost three inches when introduce, compaired to most of the other cichlids ranging from two to five inches. The first two days he seemed active early in the day an then by the evening he would totally disappear. Now its day four and neither me or my wife have seen him at all. There are many hiding places in our tank, and some of the decor peices are hollow, but I removed them and found nothing. The one sure thing would be to completely remove all the decore at the same time but I really am trying to avoid that hassle.

So, I am just curious if anyone has had any issues like this with clown loaches?

Thanks everybody.

 

[FishDad]

Update: I had a brief sighting of my clown loach. He seemed happy, busy cleaning. When I approached the tank he went back to hiding. So thats almost three whole days of not seeing him. I was worried that he hadn't adjusted well and died in some hiding spot. Oh well I guess he's fine... false alarm.

 

[OrangeCones]

Good to hear he was just hiding!

 

[Lotus]

They're excellent at hiding! If it happens again, perhaps look in the filter (if it's an HOB).

With clown loaches, the more hiding places you have, the more likely you are to see them. If they have plenty of places to hide, they feel more comfortable and come out more.