Fish Caught In Powerhead

[kmacc99]

I recently bought two clownfish. They were both acclimated to the tank, eating and swimming around without signs of illness. This morning I found one of the fish sucked into the intake of one of the powerheads..dead. All water chemistry and salinity appears to be good. I checked the powerhead box and see no protective grate for the intake that I should have installed. I did shut off all lighting to the aquarium when I went to bed. Is there anything I could have done to prevent this mishap?? The other fish seems to be swimming around fine this morning....Thanks

[Fluff]

A strong healthy fish wouldn't have gotten sucked to the intake, fish don't always show illness right off the bat. Not really sure you could have prevented it. Sorry for your loss. You could put a sponge over the intake.

[melosu58]

Alot of power heads have protective covers that will cover the intake. Kind of like sponge as Cindy was saying. Maybe you can even rig up something that will cover it but I agree that the fish was probably sick. It was drawn in because it was weak.

[cmor1701d]

Let's back up a minute and get some more information. This tank was started at the beginning of this month and just a week ago had a nitratate reading of 100ppm.

What was the nitrate level when you added this fish?
When did you add the fish?
What else is in the tank?

What are the current water parameters? Ammonia, nitirte, nitrate, pH, salinity, temp. Please post the actual numbers for the results.
As a precaution, do an immediate 15% water change.

[kmacc99]

I did a 80% water change after the 100ppm reading which dropped the nitrates down to 20ppm. The ammonia and nitrites are 0 and the pH is 7.8. These readings were stable for three days prior to the introduction of the 2 clownfish. In the aquarium is 2 clownfish and a bunch of snails. Both fish seemed to be in good health (swimming and eating)....Thanks

[fijiwigi]

Originally Posted by Fluff

A strong healthy fish wouldn't have gotten sucked to the intake, fish don't always show illness right off the bat. Not really sure you could have prevented it. Sorry for your loss. You could put a sponge over the intake.

I had a clownfish get sucked into the overflow box through the u-tube and die from being exposed to air stuck on top of the drain line grate. This clownfish was healthy and tank paramaters were great its just the clownfish was a baby literally only born 3weeks prior to me getting him from the LFS who got them from a Local Breeder of clownfish. Was not strong enough to keep up with the current. It kinda surfed with the current.

[melosu58]

Originally Posted by kmacc99

I did a 80% water change after the 100ppm reading which dropped the nitrates down to 20ppm.

This might have contributed to the weakness of the fish. Doing an 80% PWC IMO was too much. Stress occurs when water chemistry is all of a sudden changed. I know I`ve heard that in FW you can do big PWC`s but in SW you cant do that as it will stress out the fish. I personally dont ever recommend more than 33% PWC. Smaller more frequent is my position on PWC`s. But that`s just my opinion.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Unfortunately power heads often get the rep. for being fish killers, but in fact they just collect floating items that are too big to go through them (debris, dead fish, etc.). Anemones on the other hand. Power heads like to puree them.

I personally wouldn't go with a sponge on a power head, as it clogs, the performance of the power head will drop, not only that, but restricting the intake will cause premature failure of the pump (which is why you restrict the output, not the input) (probably why my magdrive pump failed, I used the sponge that came with it)

[kmacc99]

I did the 80% water change three days prior to putting the fish in the tank. The nitrates were already at 20ppm when the fish were introduced into the tank. I have not done any water changes since and the other clownfish is still doing well. Must have just been a unusual event....Thanks

[cmor1701d]

It's quote possible the fish was not as healthy as you thought. If I ahve the timeline correct the fish died within 2 weeks of introduction into your tank. Is that correct?
Could just be from the stress of being moved several times in a short period (to the distributor, to the lfs, to you). Chalk it up to MFD (mysterious fish death/disapperance).