Corry stuck in Filter Intake Tube

[Jediagh]

5 minutes ago when I got home to do my weekly water change I noticed that in my 10 gal tank I could only see 2 of my 3 corries. I looked and looked but could NOT find my 3rd corry. The tank is only 10 gal so I got a bit worried. Figured either he jumped out (via the hole for the filter) or was hiding in one of the 2 decoration caves in the tank. As I desperately looked on the floor near the tank and did NOT find him something caught my eye inside the tank.

The 3rd corry was stuck on the intake tube for the filter. He must of swam too close to it and got sucked in! I quickly turned off the main power switch for the whole tank (2 filters, 2 heaters, 1 hood light, 1 air pump) becuase in my panic of seeing him on the intake tube I could not think which plug would turn off the filter.


He immediately fell to the bottom of the tank sideways and did not move. His eyes were open and his is breathing fast. A few seconds later he attempted to swim but his tail was not moving correclty and is was move of a hop a bit attempt to swim up and fall to the bottom of the tank again!

I quicklygot a .5 gal tank filled it with some of the water from the 10 gal tank and very gently took out the wounded corry. After doing the water change I took some images of the wounded corry becuase I'm not sure what to do.

Do I put him back into the tank?
Do I leave him in the small tank?
Is there anything I CAN do?

The first image you can see his tail is not correct.

In these 2 images there is a red spot under his fin and on most of his belly. Looks like internal bleeding to me but I do not know. My other 2 corries DO NOT have this on them.

Can anyone please help me! I'm praying right now but don't think there is much else I can do. Tomorrow I'm going to the LFS and buying a partion so that the back 1/8 of the tank is dividied and the fish do not get close to the intake tubes.

 

[Jezah]

Uh, I hightly doubt the intake tube was powerful eough to suck in your cory. I think he was already sick and thats why he was too weak to get away from the suction of the tube. I would give him some melafix and stresscoat and prey. Thats about all you can do, as I dont see any other obvious problems...

 

[GSD]

im so sorry but i dont think there is much you can do...this happened to me i know how you feel

 

[ral]

Drop him an airstone too. Well it is what I do when I have a disabled fish. To help them breath easier. Am a newbie though, so may want to wait for confirmation if this advice is correct.

 

[Jediagh]

Thank you all for the info. However, I have sad news to report. I stayed up most of the night checking up on him. I placed him in my 2.5 gal medical tank with some meflex, stresscoat, and an airstone. His breathing was very rapid most of the night and everynow and then we would attempt to swim. I fell asleep in the bathroom where the medical tank is at and when I woke up this morning he was STILL ALIVE so I had hope. I left to work and just got back in about 1 hour ago. My wife broke the nes to me that sometime in the afternoon the corry passed away.

The red spot that he had was a bit bigger so I take it the internal bleeding he had must of spread. I'm leaving in about an hour to the LFS to get a divider for the back of the tank and buy at least 3 more corries.

 

[BettaMomma]

Sorry for your loss.
Losing fishies is always a tough one.

 

[WILDER]

R.I.P. sorry for your loss he was cute.

 

[Raechal]

My molly was perfectly healthy and she got sucked into the filter as well. He whole tail was bent and she barely had a tail fin (just a few shreds left) I just left her in the main tank and she recovered very well in just a few days she grew her tail back. I know how it feels to lose fish. I did a water change in my brother's 10 gallon and added new gravel (from walmart ) and all but 2 of the cories he had in there died. The betta and the shrimp seemed to be uneffected. I never found out what happened but I threw the gravel and boiled everything in the tank and had to start over. I am really sorry about your cory. I just lost two fish last week due to a nitrite spike.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Yeah, sorry dude......not good.

A few years ago my lonely Kuhli was too adventurous and swam head first into the internal filter.......

I was syphoning out pieces.................

 

[Raechal]

Yeah, sorry dude......not good.

A few years ago my lonely Kuhli was too adventurous and swam head first into the internal filter.......

I was syphoning out pieces.................

I had a betta in a 30 gallon once and the water flow was too strong and I guess he got sucked up into the filter. I don't know how, but his whole body was in there. There were little shreds of betta-tail everywhere when I tried to pull up the filtr intake to get him out. It was awful.

 

[Jediagh]

Well there is a plus to all of this. My inital thought was to get some type of wall divider and place it along the back lenght of the 10g tank and block off the back 1/8 of the tank where the filter tubes are at. Problem is that the wall dividers at my LFS were NOT long enough. All were designed to split the tanks in 1/2.

So I found some Filter Media Bags - Medium size from HBH at my LFS and bought those. (See here: http/www.hbhnet.com/products.html and look for Media Bags). I placed one media bag on each intake tube and presto I now have a barrier! I was afraid that the intake tube water flow would suck the bag to itself and be just as pointless as NOT having anything but the bag stays open and does NOT touch the tube so all is goo so far. I'll have to keep an eye on it for some more days to see if the bag gets blocked by particals or other stuff like that.

I also picked up another 3-pak of FOAM for my AquaClear 20 filter. So now I will have 2 foam filters and 1 biological baggy on the filter canister. One can never have too much benefitcal bacteria right?

Now for the best part of the trip. My wife saw how much the loss of my corry was that she OKed the purchase of 3 additional corry catfishes and 3 other corries (not the same ones like the 1st three. These are a bit whiter like the Pink Aeneus Corydoras pictured here:

All 6 of them are in the medical tank for now with feshly treated water. They'll be in there for at least 2 or 3 more days just so I'm sure they are okay before I place them in the 10 g tank. Then it will be a party becuase I'll have 8 corries in the tank!

I just corries!

 

[Mr Miagi]

Nice! its always good to have some new fishies. Yay.

Lol, goodluck with these guys.

PS, i tink the link is going to the wrong page

 

[Dorkhedeos]

im kinda late to say this, but it looks like it had dropsy

 

[fatbobsufc]

Very sorry to hear of your loss But it is warming to hear how concerned you were about your little fishy (incidentally you refer to it as 'him' but I think she was a female?? maybe someone could confirm).

Years ago when I had an undergravel filter in a 15gallon, a bronze cory was sucked down a gap I had foolishly not plugged in the opposite end of the under gravel tray. He was sucked right through the recess under the gravel tray and up the intake pipe for the pump. Miraculously he survived (though he did lose his barbels) and went on to live for a very long time after the incident.

Sorry again.