Cory Caught In Filter Intake :(

[tkdc80]

Hi all
I came home from a weekend vacation yesterday, to find one of my 6 peppered cories caught up in my filter intake - dead, unfortunately. There had been no sign of illness with him or any of his tankmates previous to my leaving - and everybody else still looks fine now.
Is it possible for a cory to by injured by the filter intake? When I knocked him off, it appears as though it was his tail that was stuck, and his body was bent around the intake
If so, is there any way I can prevent this, or is this just a freak accident?

Thanks!
Tamara

 

[jollysue]

Usually this happens when they are sick and get too weak to swim away. Unless he was up in the filter intake. They can swim up there looking for food and get stuck.

Sorry about the loss. Do you want to go over any of the tank parameters and schedules to make sure?

 

[Cory_Dad]

Yuk.

As Jollysue said, there's no way a healthy (even a sick) Cory would get caught on the intake, unless the pump is hooked up to a 1 horsepower motor. I suspect the Cory was dead and just floated to the filter. Could have died for a number of reasons but since you weren't there it'll be difficult to do a postmortem.

Let's just concentrate on the ones that are left.

Check you water stats, make sure the tank is clean.

Good luck.