A whole lotta updates...

[tsaraber]

Hi all!

You may remember awhile back I mentioned my dad had a betta, red tail shark and an angelfish all stuffed into a 2.5 gallon tank? Well he had been trying to save up the money to upgrade those poor fish to a 29 gallon. (I had to talk him into the 29 gallon because he was about to just buy a 10). Anyway I went over there for a visit one day and about died when I saw his betta. It was absolutely shredded and as I watched the shark started chasing him all over the tank. I couldn't take it. I handed my dad every penny in my wallet and told him to go buy his 29 gallon tank and move those poor fish. He did and decided he didn't want to move over the betta, asked me if I wanted it and if not he was going to give it to my aunt (you all remember her, the fish flusher). Wasn't about to give that woman a betta so we're now the proud owner of a new betta - he's so shredded he almost looks like a crowntail. But we're fixing him up and he's happy happy, made a bubble nest the size of Texas the first day here.

In other news, thought I'd share another funny story which I'm sure isn't really original but it's new to us. We decided to purchase one of those battery operated vacuum things. The second we try to vacuum the tank with it one of our angelfish swims right up the tube. Fortunately it's not turned on at this point but the little buggers are rather hard to get out of there, they refuse to swim out on their own. And then, while using that same vacuum, my husband accidentally sucked up a danio. The thing just swam right up the tube and into the collection bag. The fish is just fine, not sure how it managed to make it through that but all ended well I guess. Can never catch the things when you're trying to net them but try to avoid them and they're constantly in the way.

Guess that's a sign we shouldn't be using a battery powered vacuum.

 

[cheezysquirrelz]

Im happy for the betta.
You dont take your fish out of the tank before you vaccume? I tried that once, and I sucked up my poor little pleco, hes lived.

 

[happyhillbilly]

Good, I'm glad he's okay.

 

[tsaraber]

You dont take your fish out of the tank before you vaccume?

Nope. We've never taken the fish out, honestly I was never told you were supposed to. We vacuum every week, of course it was always with a plain old suction vacuum. We never had any problems until buying the battery operated vac.

 

[Fruitbat]

I personally don't know anybody who takes their fish out of the tank when they vacuum. I certainly don't!

 

[lreilly]

I personally don't know anybody who takes their fish out of the tank when they vacuum. I certainly don't!

 

[cheezysquirrelz]

Hmmmm.....thats wierd I thought you were supposed to. I always have. I have lots of bottom dwellers, so I sort of have to. Where do you find battery operated vaccumes? Since I take my fish out I could use one. I once got a mouth full of poop water when using a suction vaccume on my 5 gal tank, a battery vac sounds cool.

 

[krap101]

I personally don't know anybody who takes their fish out of the tank when they vacuum. I certainly don't!

lol thats why you vacuum instead of scooping it out with a cup

 

[Menagerie]

My fish all avoid the grav vac--especially all my bottom dwellers in the 50 gal! Although, I have sucked up a khuli loach once, but he was just fine.

 

[tbonem91]

my big crossbreed attacks it... and sometimes my fingers get in the way - more than once, that darned fish has drawn blood

 

[tsaraber]

We got our battery vac at Pet Supplies Plus - it was like $30. It's just the vac, doesn't come with any hoses but it looks like it can be used with a hose, haven't tried that yet. And ohhhh yeah, I did the mouth full of nasty fish water once - came so fast it went right down my throat before I realized what was happening. EWWW! (OK honestly it didn't taste any worse than plain old tap water but it's the thought, ya know?)

cheezysquirrelz, leaving your fish in the tank when you vacuum is alot less stressful on the fish I would think (as long as you're not sucking them up of course). Hubby keeps the hose held in his hand so he can kink it really fast if a fish get's too close. Or in the case of the battery vac, keep your finger on the power switch.

 

[Blackpearl]

Well I dont remove the fish too. Sometimes the platy fry would get sucked up too. They were very tiny, newly dropped. But I always check the bucket before disposing the waste, so they are safe.

Somehow my platies like to hang around the vacuum tube. They see leftover food and waste flying all over and like to have a nibble. Once I saw a small white worm and a platy just come and just 'slurp-ed' it

 

[cginflorida]

I don't take my fish out when I gravel vac, they always get out of the way. But I do check the waste water before I toss it out, just in case.

For those of you who've gotten a mouthful of fish water trying to siphon, you don't have to do that. I fill up my siphon completely with water at the tub. I hold my finger over the tube end until I get to the bucket, put the vac end into the aquarium, submerge it completely, then take my finger off and the water starts running into the bucket. The tap water doesn't go into the aquarium because it immediately starts getting sucked out.

 

[jennymit21]

i don't understand about this mouthful of water stuff :? .... i put the tube in the bucket and the lg end into the aquarium, then i move the lg end up and down really fast at an angle and the water starts coming.
i've never sucked up any of my fish as i keep the vacuum end right at gravel level and watch where i'm going. Usually the fish in my community are on the opposite end of wherever i happen to be sucking at the moment. I can't imagine having to pull out 30+ fish just to do a water change!!! 8O Mebbe i have a dif type than you all...i don't know but sounds like a pain to have to prep it or suck on it!

 

[cheezysquirrelz]

Well thanks for telling me. My fish thank you guys too. I'll stop taking them out.

 

[oscarbreeder]

Thats just to much stress on your fish to take them out every time you vac.