Hi, I've had my 2 dojo loaches for a week now and I'm worried I've scared them! They have a log ornament with holes they love to go in - specially while I do a water change (been doing a partial change daily as it's a new tank). I put the ornament on top of a small gravel area and not the sand that covers most of the tank so they wouldn't be tempted to bury under it. When I poured water in it washed away some gravel, and then my biggest Loach tried to wiggle under the ornament. I thought he'd got stuck so I gently moved the ornament away - but this seemed to scare the heck out of them both!
Now their behavior has changed the last two days - they hide in the log together more, and have started burying themselves. The tank I bought them from didn't have enough sand in it to bury themselves so I'm not sure if they've just learned to do this and it's normal, or that it's a sign I've really stressed them out
They seem fine apart from that, and they have the tank to themselves ( I was only interested in keeping loaches)
We had loaches when I was a kid, and unfortunately there was only gravel in the tank so I've ever seen the burying behaviour before!