A Fish Got Stuck In A Gap And Died

[stormy78]

Hi all, I have a structured background in my tank and there is a slight gap between the end of the background the the front of the tank (its a corner tank). I can't get my little finger more than a few mill into the gap. Anyway one of my smallest rummy nose tetra's managed to get into the gap after lights out and this morning I found him/her stuck in the gap dead .

Does anybody have any advice on how to plug this small gap? I was sorely tempted to strip the tank down this morning and remove the back grounds but this would mean more stress for the fish and it would take a full day over the weekend. Generally when the lights are on they dont go anywhere near the gap. I felt so bad this morning, I have tried to make the enviroment look as natural as possible and end up killing a fish becuase I didnt get the background pushed right up against the glass

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thats the biggest problem with these structured backgrounds.

IMO the only safe way to apply them is when the tank is empty and dry and to use aquarium silicone to attach it, when this has gone off it should hold tight with no gaps.

that thought obviously means a lot of work and stress for the fish if you want to add one or to follow this process now. you'd have to drain the tank, set up a temporary home for the fish with filtration etc for a day or two (got to leave time for silicone to go off) and then once that's done move the fish back in.

choice between that or no structured background in my mind.

 

[stormy78]

Hi MW the background is in there already and I thought I had a really tight fit in the tank. There is no gap behind the background, nothing can get behind it, its where one end of the background meets the curved front of the tank (think of a wedge of cake). I may just leave the tank as is for a month or two to see if it was a one off and then transfer everything to my 130L tank for a few days while I remove the background and add some black backing.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ah missed that you said it was a corned tank, can visualise exactly the problem.

come to think of it I've seen pics of your tank so I should know it's a corner tank anyway I blame my boss, been making me do complicated maths on a monday morning, my brains fried!!

really you either live with it and hope it's a one off, remove the background and replace it with a non structured one or strip down the tank and run a bead of aquarium silicone around the edge to seal it.

 

[stormy78]

Cheers as always MW

 

[vinylman]

Hi MW the background is in there already and I thought I had a really tight fit in the tank. There is no gap behind the background, nothing can get behind it, its where one end of the background meets the curved front of the tank (think of a wedge of cake). I may just leave the tank as is for a month or two to see if it was a one off and then transfer everything to my 130L tank for a few days while I remove the background and add some black backing.

Maybe the best thing would be to empty the tank, then just fill in any gaps with black sealant, rather than starting again from scratch.

 

[poconoboss]

Maybe the best thing would be to empty the tank, then just fill in any gaps with black sealant, rather than starting again from scratch.

I agree.

I have my background completely sealed with black silicone around all edges.

I put gravel on the silicone while it was still wet to cover the silicone a bit. You can see what I mean in this pic on the left: