Missing one of my loaches! Help.

[MARITA]

I carefully added a small cup of gravel from my other (established) tank to increase the good bacteria in my newer loach aquarium and this morning. I was real careful & swear nothing was in that spot. The other 3 are there, but the one long-nose loach was nowhere to be found . I looked under each plant & decoration - nothing!!! God, could he be buried under the gravel. I have about 1" of small smooth rocked gravel in there - what should I do

[loachmom]

MARITA,

Is this one of the long nosed loaches that naturally bury themselves?

He could just be really well-hidden. He may show up tonight after the lights go out. I hope so.

[helen nightingale]

i recently got some new botia striata. i was really worried as 2 of them dissappeared. a week later, i have now found a hiding place, and have seen 3 of them feed. if your long nosed loaches are the sort to naturally bury themselves, then they will probably be even harder to spot than my striata. keep your fingers crossed and look into the smallest of crevises if you can.

check the water quality often too, as a dead fish could make the water turn bad.

good luck - i hope it is fine

[Fear_The_Loach]

Or just bring out a flashlight and see what happens at night. That's how I found my long-lost pleco (well, I hadn't seen hide nor hair of him for a few days).

[Ippo456]

Gosh, I thought 3 of my clowns dissapeared, when I found out that they found a hiding place in the plastic decoration!
It was hard to get them out of the decor without hurting them (they like it because it's dark & snug ).
Also, I saw one of them burying himself under the gravel