Fish eating filter!

S

setcal

AC Members
Feb 9, 2005
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Denver, CO
www.charmedbysuz.com
I'm sorry I ever paid so much money to get a deluxe Magnum 350 filter. They say you can't have too much filtration (I have a 38 gallon), but maybe you can.

Within a day of purchasing 3 platys and 3 corys (expensive pandas, I might add), all 3 platys and one of the corys dissapeared. I found them in the filter. Why??? The only way they can get in is from where the water is pushed out.

Has anyone had this happen? I've had this tank for 3 months - it's succesfully cycled, but fish go missing now and then. I've also had a black skirt and gold barb fry get stuck in there.

Please help. Thanks!
 
often, fish which are panicked by other more aggressive fish, try to escape by either jumping out of an incompletely covered tank (you'd be surprised how small an opening will suffice) or swimming up the water column into the filter. don't know if this applies to you or not but ...
 
try putting something over the waterfall area to stop the fish from "escapeing" that way, then add more plants/ hideing places

on my tank i have a sponge (tube from a sponge filter) that i have on over the waterfall area, the water flows through the sponge (which doesnt cover the entire area, so the water that doesnt go through the sponge goes around, this makes the tank sound a lot quieter too.
also, about once a month, i rinse out this sponge in tank water, i am always surprised with how much stuff gets in the sponge since the water has already gone through the filter... and im shure the sponge adds more space for beneficial bacteria, so its a great thing to have...
 
I cant see any possible way for them to go up into the outlet tube while the filter is running. The only possible way would be if you shut off the filter or if there was a power failiure for a few hours and they went into the tube then....
 
If the fish are able to swim up the outlet then it's clearly not too strong of a current for your tank. Being sucked in, I can see, but doesn't that thing have a screen or something?
 
Hrm, this is the first I've heard of fish getting INSIDE a Magnum.

This must be a pretty small fish to get through the filter nozzle. Fry, yes, they'll get sucked into almost any filter. Sponge filters or covering the regular filter's intake with sponge is best for fry. But a full grown fish?

Usually, and many here will vouch for this, they get blown to bits instead. The force of a Magnum's outflow can be so strong that it can blow the appendages off the fish.

I lost a gravid oto to my Magnum 250. She was blown across the tank -- 30" -- and into the glass. SMACK! Dead oto.

Roan
 
I had a escaping ropefish that entered the canister filter by the intake tube of a Penplax Cascade 1000 canister filter because I refused to attach the protective screen.

Other than that, I believe it's quite impossible for a fish to reach the filter via the return line: 1st, there is a powerful current to swim against, and 2nd (at least in this brand) that tube ends exactly in the pump propeller, while the "sucking" tube goses directrly to the canister itself.
 
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