Unfortunately, I've had a few horror stories... here's a couple of them.
My 46 gallon tank had a number of yoyo loaches in it, and a couple large pieces of drift wood. The loaches would tunnel under the driftwood to make their own entrances to the "caves" that I'd made with the wood. One of these tunnels collapsed and squished the yoyo loach. By the time I found him, he was long dead. Since then, I've always made sure that my wood was supported on the tank floor and not against other decorations in the tank so that this kind of accident wouldn't happen again.
Same tank; I'm doing a water change and for whatever reason, I needed access to the area behind the driftwood that I couldn't reach without moving the driftwood. I picked up the piece of drift wood and placed it in a bucket. About a minute into me working at the back of the tank, I can hear this flopping sound. Look down into the bucket where I'd placed the driftwood and one of the loaches is flopping around in the bucket. I guess he was inside a hideyhole in the wood and I didn't notice him. Since then, I always tap the driftwood before I remove it from the tank so that I can see if any loaches are hiding in it before i remove it, or I put the wood into a bucket full of tank water.
First year of university, I had a 5 gallon tank on my desk (the largest size allowed by the university in residence/dorms). The tank was divided, and home to two male bettas. On one side, I ran a small internal filter, and on the other side, I ran a DIY Sponge filter. Unfortunately, being the idiot that I am, I didn't think to put a checkvalve into the airline for the sponge filter. I unplugged the aerator running it because the noise was driving me nuts as I was trying to study and was going to plug it in when I was done my essay. The textbook I was working from was sat in front of the tank; $175 textbook.... The airline siphoned water out of the tank, and guess what sucked it up? My textbook. Thing acted as a sponge!. Had to have absorbed about 2 gallons of water by the time I noticed. So; not only did I have a huge mess to clean up, I also had to replace the $175 textbook.
Since then, I ALWAYS have a checkvalve in the airline. ALWAYS!
My 46 gallon tank had a number of yoyo loaches in it, and a couple large pieces of drift wood. The loaches would tunnel under the driftwood to make their own entrances to the "caves" that I'd made with the wood. One of these tunnels collapsed and squished the yoyo loach. By the time I found him, he was long dead. Since then, I've always made sure that my wood was supported on the tank floor and not against other decorations in the tank so that this kind of accident wouldn't happen again.
Same tank; I'm doing a water change and for whatever reason, I needed access to the area behind the driftwood that I couldn't reach without moving the driftwood. I picked up the piece of drift wood and placed it in a bucket. About a minute into me working at the back of the tank, I can hear this flopping sound. Look down into the bucket where I'd placed the driftwood and one of the loaches is flopping around in the bucket. I guess he was inside a hideyhole in the wood and I didn't notice him. Since then, I always tap the driftwood before I remove it from the tank so that I can see if any loaches are hiding in it before i remove it, or I put the wood into a bucket full of tank water.
First year of university, I had a 5 gallon tank on my desk (the largest size allowed by the university in residence/dorms). The tank was divided, and home to two male bettas. On one side, I ran a small internal filter, and on the other side, I ran a DIY Sponge filter. Unfortunately, being the idiot that I am, I didn't think to put a checkvalve into the airline for the sponge filter. I unplugged the aerator running it because the noise was driving me nuts as I was trying to study and was going to plug it in when I was done my essay. The textbook I was working from was sat in front of the tank; $175 textbook.... The airline siphoned water out of the tank, and guess what sucked it up? My textbook. Thing acted as a sponge!. Had to have absorbed about 2 gallons of water by the time I noticed. So; not only did I have a huge mess to clean up, I also had to replace the $175 textbook.
Since then, I ALWAYS have a checkvalve in the airline. ALWAYS!
