striata loach

[f8fan]

I found one sole striata loach at my LFS Friday (at $3.99...was this a good deal?) in a tank that a person's who is moving away and was selling his fish.
He settled right in, was doing great, until yesterday when I did some rearranging in the tank ( http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28844 ) and now I can't find him! I was very careful moving things, and have checked and rechecked every cave, interior of the rock wall (which is hollow - no loach ).
Do they ever burrow into sand? It's the only thing I can think of to explain his dissapearance. Do they jump out of tanks? I have looked all over and can't seem to find anything. Bums me out, he's a cool little fish.

 

[Mushroomman]

Yes loaches tend to burrow, and they can do a good job if the sand is deep enough.

Id check the surrounding area though just to make sure it didnt pop out though.

 

[Lotus]

That sounds like a pretty good deal.

They are pretty good at hiding, and because they're slim, they can fit into cracks, etc. (behind heaters, filter intakes, etc.) Maybe some bloodworms will coax him out of hiding. I think all botias have a tendency to jump, but I don't think striatas are the most jumpy ones.

 

[f8fan]

Well, guess who decided to come out and say good morning today.
Man they sure can hide well! I looked EVERYEHERE! I am really glad to see the litttle fella....

 

[FishGeek]

Well that is good news!! Glad to hear he is OK!

 

[twoluvcats]

i have 2 zebra loaches and they both take turns hiding on me...one will be out, the other totally hiding.

loaches are pretty dang cute...i'd like to get at least 1 more, but the zebras are hard to get here.

 

[Fish Friend]

good news f8fan, where do you think he was hiding ? in the sand ??

 

[f8fan]

Yah, must have been the sand. I noticed that the sunken airplane cave had little piles of sand around it, I just chalked it up to the kribs doing a little housekeeping and spitting sand to make the cave their "home" again in it's new location. The loach hasn't come back out at all - are they extremely nocturnal? I only saw him this morning when I turned the lights on, and haven't seen him since....he didn another quick dissapearring act.
I'm just glad that I am not crazy and he really IS in there, and didnt suffer a crispy floor death

 

[Fish Friend]

lol you know when your kribs spawned ??? what happened with them, did they still have the fry when you moved the tank around ?