suicidal clown loach?

[dirtyblacksocks]

the other morning I woke up to find one of my 5" clown loach half buried head first into some sand substrate in one of my planted tanks.

As in, literally straight up and down, all the way to the caudal fin, head buried...dead as a doorknob.

Bars were faded, slime coat was peeling off - it wasn't just playing dead.

I've kept them for a long long time and never experienced anything like this - any stories or insights to share?

 

[physicz]

i have a pack myself,never seen suck behavior sorry for ur loss

 

[QueenslandeR]

maybe the other fish in the tank tried to give it a burial???? sorry for the loss mate!

 

[Onion01]

maybe the other fish in the tank tried to give it a burial???? sorry for the loss mate!

that is morbidly hilarious

sorry for your loss. I found a half-dead bichir half buried, but he made it in the end

 

[Edwin]

sumthing similar to this, i sometimes find my loach floating around like if hes dead, but when i open the lid he stops and swims up to the surface like if im going to feed him. its really weird.

 

[Blub Blub]

My guess is that it died from something else. In my experience fish sometimes spaz out pritty bad as they die, in doing so it probably buried its head in the substrate.

Did it show any signs of illness before hand?

Sorry you lost your fish.

 

[Blub Blub]

I found a half-dead bichir half buried, but he made it in the end

Now that you mention it, I startled my bichir really bad one time while doing a gravel vac. It almost completely buried itself in the gravel in a matter of about 2 seconds, but came back out after about 30 seconds.

 

[ewurm]

I have seen them bury themselves when spooked, but never a resulting death. That's odd.