siphon

[Jharvey]

Hi folks. I've been having one trouble after another lately. Most recently, I was doing a water change in a five gallon tank and I siphoned one of my guppies! He had been lying on the bottom of the tank this morning and I thought he was dead, but then he was swimming around (though possibly with a little wobble - is that a sign of something) so I was going to do a pwc to try to help and I saw something suck into the tube and lifted it out of the water immediately but now we can't find him so I think it must have been him!!

I had never heard of a fish getting sucked up in a siphon - it's not a big one. Is that possible?! DO you think it's because he was sick? Unfortunately, I siphon directly into my sink drain so I had no way to save him.

I'm feeling TERRIBLE. Please let me know what I did wrong.

 

[Cecibella123]

I don't think you did anything wrong. Small fish like tetras aren't very heavy. Usually they're able to keep themselves out of the siphon, but if it was ill, it maybe didn't have the strength. Maybe from now on, you should use a bucket, so if you happen to siphon another fish, you can return it to the tank.