Loaches Online Forum

Ill start off, mine would probably be the case of the missing dojo. before i start, the moral of the story is to always check your sand/substrate
one day, i was doing a water change when i realized i had left something cooking, as i ran downstairs, i completely forgot about the water change. while i was waiting for the smoke to clear (pasta had burned) i decided to check on the fish tank. as i went up, i heard the noise of the filter running dry, so i ran up stairs and saw that all the water was gone from the tank and the fishes were flopping around. i immediately set to work filling it up again. as soon as i got it filled enough, i took a head count only to find i was a dojo short, panicked i looked around the tank and on the floor in front of the tank. i looked in my gravel cleaner which i was using to siphon the water out the window (2 stories) and realized that the protective screen was gone, so i ran downstairs and looked around below becoming even more panicked, after about an hour i gave up. dismayed, i returned to the fish tank and saw a flash of gold. with a glimmer of hope, i saw that indeed, the loach had just buried himself in the sand. to this day i don't know how i missed him because i had combed through the sand.

I can't think of anything scary like this but your story must have been some experience Just slow down on the pasta

I have some kuhli loaches that stayed hidden or were trapped underneath an ornament for about a year.

One of my clown loaches once jumped through an empty water bridge into an empty tank. She must of thought there was water in it. Thankfully, I was nearby when it happened and moved her back promptly.

I had a dojo jump out a tank. I couldn't see it near the tank so spent a long time combing the substrate and taking everything out of the tank. Later managed to find the dojo under the furniture as it had wriggled across the carpet, covered in dust and half dry and with all its barbels sucked into its mouth. It recovered after a few days back in the water.
Presumably they swallow their barbels to protect them from drying out?

heh, yeah i think it protects them so they still work if water were to come back to the loach