Fish Getting Caught In Filter

[zola]

I have a 60 litre tank with an eheim aquaball 60. There are two filter pad parts to this filter, one main cylinder pad, and one smaller pad above it, in a seperate compartment.

I originally did a fish in cycle..didn't realise! I wanted to speed up the cycling process after learning about what I had done! A forum member kindly donated filter media to me. It was was taken from a much larger tank.

I cut these up into small chunks and padded out the filter.

4 months passed and all is fine. I serviced the filter last month (gave it a quick rinse out in old tank water) and put it all back together.

A Molly has been caught by the tail in one of the vents of the filter. Last night I came home to find my platy also caught in the filter byt the tail.

I took the filter out and I could see that the pads were not right at edges, there were spaces in the vents.

I am thinking that the extra space in the vents have sucked them in and they cant get out because of this??

I tried taking the pads out and pulling them all to the edge but its not perfect.


I am looking for advice for what to do.

Should I buy a new replacement cylinder pad for the filter and start over or should I buy more filter pads and keeep stuffing it? Its hard to fill it all out completely.

I am thinking if I do a new pad the smaller compartment may help speed up the new cycle.

 

[ZoddyZod]

is it possible that the fish died BEFORE they got stuck in the filter?

 

[zola]

Don't think it, both had their tails well in the vent, too much of a coincidence I think ?

 

[swanseastilo]

Im sure your fish a strong enough to swim away from the filter.

I have lost several fish and they do tend do end up by the filter.

My partner told me a fish was floating over the phone. Time i got him it was stuck in the filter.

Do a water test and post it on here for us.

 

[zola]

I kinda panicked last night and I did a 2/3 water change.

I always a weekly change of 1/3 (now that the tank is cycled), the ammonia is always about 0.25 and nitrite is always virtually 0.

 

[ZoddyZod]

I kinda panicked last night and I did a 2/3 water change.

I always a weekly change of 1/3 (now that the tank is cycled), the ammonia is always about 0.25 and nitrite is always virtually 0.

if you have an ammonia reading every week then your tank is not cycled. It should ALWAYS be 0.

 

[zola]

it seems like its zero, or the yellowest kind of green that there is.

the worst its been is perhaps 0.25, if its even that at all

 

[ZoddyZod]

it seems like its zero, or the yellowest kind of green that there is.

the worst its been is perhaps 0.25, if its even that at all

are you using the API kit? Best way to check is to test some tank water next to some tap water. Hold them side-by-side. If there is a hint of green in the tank sample then it will be obvious.

I started doing this because I found the lowever readings of ammonia very difficult to judge agains the API colour chart.

 

[zola]

yeah using an API kit. I will try it with tap water as you say, because it is hard to tell.

But you don't reckon its the space in the filter vents that have sucked the fish in?

 

[ZoddyZod]

yeah using an API kit. I will try it with tap water as you say, because it is hard to tell.

But you don't reckon its the space in the filter vents that have sucked the fish in?

the space shouldn't increase the flow of the filter that drastically. However, I'd still try and block that space anyway so that the water flows properly over the sponges/media rather than the easier route found with the gap.

 

[nicoleandthebee]

We had two small cory's die from getting stuck in the filter (pretty sure it was this) and our solution was to put tights over it. Still lets the water through but stops their tails from getting pulled inside