Death by Filter?! How to Prevent this!

[BassSoLow]

I have a 36 gallon bow front with an emperor 280 filter. This morning I woke up to a fish stuck to the filter. He was perfectly fine about 15 minutes prior to my finding him. He was a blue fin danio. This used to happen in my old tank as well. How do you prevent this from happening? They just swim too close or get curious and get sucked up! Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Thumper828]

Maybe a prefilter of some sort would help.

 

[Brilliant_Barbs_21]

I have a 36 gallon bow front with an emperor 280 filter. This morning I woke up to a fish stuck to the filter. He was perfectly fine about 15 minutes prior to my finding him. He was a blue fin danio. This used to happen in my old tank as well. How do you prevent this from happening? They just swim too close or get curious and get sucked up! Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Only sick fish get sucked into filters. Healthy fish can avoid that. What are your parameters?

 

[BassSoLow]

Only sick fish get sucked into filters. Healthy fish can avoid that. What are your parameters?

Everything is perfect right now. And he was swing around fine 15 minutes before I found him. I just tested the water and did a water change as well last night. No issues.

 

[BassSoLow]

To elaborate...0 ammonia and 0 nitrates.

 

[Nimo]

I agree most of the time for a fish to get sucked in to the filter they are weak. In most cades healthy ones can avoid the pull. You can however try to wrap a piece of plain filter media around to pick up and that might help but it slows your filter down so it doesnt turn the water over as many times as it is supose to.

 

[Masha]

A prefilter does not always slow a filter down - or not necessarily. It will if the prefilter is too dense. I have a piece of very coarse Aquaclear sponge over the intake tube. It just spreads the pressure of the flow over a larger area, so it's easier for fish to get away if they ever do get sucked against it.

 

[BassSoLow]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I suppose it is possible he was sick, just showed no signs and the water parameters are good. I'll test again tonight to make sure. Just bummed out!

 

[Caliban07]

This may seem a little bit silly but are you sure the danio was stuck? It's happened to me on a few occasions where particularly my betta has been 'stuck' to the filter grills but when I've gone to help him off (rather than just sensibly turning the filter off) he just swam of it.

He just looked like he was relaxing so he didn't have to swim.

I turned the flow down anyway as I know they don't like strong flows.

 

[BassSoLow]

This may seem a little bit silly but are you sure the danio was stuck? It's happened to me on a few occasions where particularly my betta has been 'stuck' to the filter grills but when I've gone to help him off (rather than just sensibly turning the filter off) he just swam of it. He just looked like he was relaxing so he didn't have to swim. I turned the flow down anyway as I know they don't like strong flows.

Yeah. He was stuck. I had to pull him off and his fin was mangled pretty bad.

 

[Caliban07]

Aww man sorry about that

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

This may seem a little bit silly but are you sure the danio was stuck? It's happened to me on a few occasions where particularly my betta has been 'stuck' to the filter grills but when I've gone to help him off (rather than just sensibly turning the filter off) he just swam of it.

He just looked like he was relaxing so he didn't have to swim.

I turned the flow down anyway as I know they don't like strong flows.

This happened to my betta as well! I saw him stuck to the filter and when I bent down to look at him he saw me and immediately pulled off it and swam away...they must just get lazy. I'm sorry about your danio though Other than the betta, I've never had a problem with the filter sucking up live fish.

 

[Brilliant_Barbs_21]

This happened to my betta as well! I saw him stuck to the filter and when I bent down to look at him he saw me and immediately pulled off it and swam away...they must just get lazy. I'm sorry about your danio though Other than the betta, I've never had a problem with the filter sucking up live fish.

It's a but more common for bettas to get caught in strong filters from their long flowing fins. But danios shouldn't if they're 100% healthy. Any signs of illness in the other fish?

 

[Caliban07]

Don't blue fin danios have slightly longer fins than normal danios?

My betta wasn't stuck he was just being lazy. Gave me a fright though!

 

[twiddlemuffin]

Like everyone else has said, healthy fish would be able to swim away. If you don't believe this is the case then I suggest replacing with a sponge filter or placing pantyhose on the intake.

 

[Caliban07]

Pantyhose is a good solution. Probably a temporary one though as it's not very aesthetically pleasing.

Less flow IMO.

 

[Aspencer]

To elaborate...0 ammonia and 0 nitrates.

In my experience, a tank very seldom has 0 nitrates.

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

In my experience, a tank very seldom has 0 nitrates.

He probably meant 0 nitrites, easy mistake to make