Loaches Online Forum

Okay, it's an elephant statue. The ex thought it looked great in the tank, and it's a completely smooth statue so I thought it would be okay. One of my loaches LOVES it. He lives in this thing. I never see him anymore. We thought maybe he was dead, but he came out just a couple of weeks ago. I think he comes out at night to look for food.

The problem with this statue is the only way in or out is through a finger-tip-sized (roughly 7/8") hole in the elephant's tummy. I have to give the elephant back now, and my loach will not come out of this thing. I tried draining the water from the elephant statue and slowly rotating it back and forth to make the loach uncomfortable enough to exit the elephant (this worked once before), but he seems to have gotten wise to this routine. I took the elephant out of the water and have it sitting just over the tank so that if he comes out he will fall into the tank. I read that dojo loaches can stay out of the water for long periods of time, so this should be okay, right? But I feel like I'm torturing my fish!

Help! How can I get my loach out of this elephant? I'm worried if I break the elephant that I might hurt the fish. (In addition to breaking a fairly expensive statue that does not belong to me).

- Loachless in Seattle

how bout some food infront of it

Thanks -Sharky! Yeah, I've had some food pellets just below the opening for a little while now with no result. But maybe if I wait a bit longer? I wonder though since he doesn't have any water whether the loach's primary concern is food right now. Maybe I've freaked him out and he won't come out until he has to?

Can loaches smell food?

OH MY GOD HE JUST CAME OUT! Yay!!!!!! And he seems fine. I am SO happy right now. ^^

I don't know if it was the lack of water or the food, but something worked! He plopped right into the tank! Elephant is going bye bye for sure...

rkb_fish wrote: Can loaches smell food?

From what I've read and watching my own pair of dojos, I think they detect food by tasting it on their barbels.
So unless a current moved particles of the food to their barbels they wouldn't know it was there. Although mine know to go to the surface to find food also, even though they know from experience that I've fed the other fish they don't seem to be able to see the food and can swim right past it.
I suppose you can call it "smelling" food but the barbels are covered in taste buds of some kind.

Glad the outcome was good for both dojo and elephant!

Huh, that is interesting! I had noticed that the loach who didn't live in the elephant seemed aware when I dropped food into the tank. He would start sniffing around the tank floor for the pellets. He also seemed to remember what time of day I would typically drop pellets in, and begin looking for them. Fish are crazy.

Yes, thank you. Both the loach and elephant are in excellent condition. The loach seemed a bit light in color when he came out initially, but he's back to his pretty speckled grey now. The elephant seems indifferent.

That's a mighty long-suffering elephant. Kudos to him...and your loach for seeing the proper way to behave. Back into the water, loachie!
I enjoyed reading this little tale; and I'm glad your loach is really ok