Clown loaches suddenly nowhere to be seen

wrote:
Hi - I'm a VERY amateur aquariast. My wife & I bought a house with a
tank built into the wall, and the past six months have been a crash
course. We've got two angels, two clown loaches, a couple black
mollys, a host of tetras, and an algea-eater I've only seen a handful
of times.

The clown loaches are by far my favorite fish in the tank. When we
first moved in, we didn't see much of them - that was for like the
first couple of weeks only. Then they were always out, chasing each
other around, exploring, etc. Always front and center.

The other night, my wife pointed out that she hand't seen the loaches
in awhile. As I thought about it, I hadn't either. The past couple of
days I've been watching closely - they don't come out even for
feeding. For awhile, I feared they were dead inside one of their caves
(a large log with openings). But today, I was using a flashlight to
see inside the caves, and I could see one of their tails. It was
moving, so I know that at least one is alive.

Why would their behavior change so drastically and suddenly? We
recently had a high-PH event (ran out of PH- and the store we use was
on back order), but that's long past and thing have been back to
normal for awhile. That's the only factor I can think of that could
have impacted their behavior (all of the other fish seem unaffected -
it only got to about 7.5).

Any help for this blooming newbie?

Matt

Not sure how helpful this will be, but mind did something similar.
After I had had them in my tank awhile, I purchased a fake log ornament.
This fake log was hollow. Well, after it had been in the tank for
awhile one of my clown loaches disappeared. Then another. Then I was
extremely worried. Then the third one was gone. The next morning I
found one swimming around, so I had hope for the other two. I tore the
tank apart. I lifted up the hollow log thing and one of them plopped
out. The other was wedged in it so tight no amount of shaking could
dislodge it. I put the tank back together and watched the loaches
closely. They had burrowed into the gravel to get inside the log.

All three have grown quite a bit, but still stay in the log most of the
time. They come out just before lights out and will swim up and down
and click if I wait too long to feed them.

I think this type of thing is common for clown loaches. They like to be
crammed together and they don't like light. If you check your tank when
it is dark, I bet you will find the loaches swimming around looking for
food.

kietz