Neon Tetras get stuck in the filter

[axshay123]

Hi,
I have a 10 gallon freshwater tank, with 20 Neon Tetras in it. The last few days I have been observing, that after feeding the Neons, one of them would rather inexplicably get stuck in the filter. I normally feed them twice a day and this happens only at night. I leave the lights on while feeding them. All the fish that have died this way have been small Neons. The large ones seem to be perfectly fine. I have checked the water for Ammonia, pH and Nitrates and everything seems to be ok. Can someone tell me whats going wrong?

Thanks
Akshay

 

[Milky]

Well basically what happens is that
during the night when the neons
sleep they tend to drift in the current
a bit and eventually will get close
to the filter intake. Since there asleep
they dont have time to react to the
suction of the filter and by the time
they wake up the filter has basically
got them caught in the suction of the
current.. normally other fish could swim
out of it but with smaller type fish like guppies and
neons its almost always a death trap, plus sometimes
it takes fish time to learn to stay away from the filter
intake but in a small tank its almost unavoidable... Ok
well enough about that but what can you do to prevent this
well you could get some type of thin plastic mesh and wrap
it around the filter input im not sure how to describe it
but ive seen it at the fish stores on there fry tanks it keeps
the baby frys from being sucked up its like a platic sponge
or you could turn down the filter intensity a little of course
this will effect your overall performance of the filter well good
luck its awfull to loose fish because of this hope something
works for y akeep us posted ... :soda: :soda: :soda: :soda: :sad :sad :sad

 

[victimizati0n]

a fish that gets stuck to a filter intake is a sick fish. (unless it is a fry)

 

[Signus]

Have you cycled the tank yet? If you have not, then the little buggers are not going to do too well till it cycles.

Oh yea, if you want to make a sponge filter for your intake, you can take an aquaclear filter sponge and cut an X in it, deep enough so you can slip it over the tip. Works pretty darn nicely.

 

[Hound]

You haven't mentioned what sort of filter you are using, but my general guess would be that if it happens at lights out water current is dragging sleeping neons into the filter intake. As someone else mentioned you can try putting a sponge around your filter intake as a solution. Another thing to consider is if your filter intake is too close to the gravel maybe?

 

[JSchmidt]

I've never seen healthy neons get caught in a filter, either, regardless of whether it was day or night. If you're running massive a massive filter on a small tank (e.g., an Emperor 400 on a 10 gallon) you might have problems, but otherwise, the fish should be able to steer clear of the intake.

I'd be looking at the overall health of the fish and the water quality. I'd be interested in knowing whether the tank has cycled, like signus asked. Neons do not tolerate ammonia/nitrites well, IME.

Good luck,
Jim

 

[mayreee]

I think that the fish probably died before it got stuck in the filter. I have 2 small neons (getting more soon) and they have never had a problem with the filter.