hllb
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2019
- Messages
- 2,175
- Reaction score
- 1,549
- What state or country do you live in
- Michigan
On Saturday, I added two small fish - a yellowtail damsel and a small orchid dottyback (maybe 1 to 1.25"). The dottyback was hanging out near the overflow, and yup, he disappeared. My first thought was the overflow. I have a canopy on my tank, so no easy access to the overflow, but I used my phone and took photos and videos and didn't see him. I also looked from underneath and didn't see him. I've checked multiple times over the last 3 days with this method and never saw him.
Until today. I got motivated today and got a ladder and squeezed my head under the canopy so I could look into the overflow. Oh look, there he is, perfectly fine.
So, my question is, what are the best tricks to get him out? I had this happen in my old tank with my clown, but I could get a net in there and was easily able to get him out (clowns are slow LOL). I have a bean animal drain, plus an emergency drain, plus a return line in the overflow so it's super crowded. The main drain and the emergency drain are glued in. The return is threaded but was so difficult to get on so no plans to try to remove that. The secondary drain, circled in the photo below, is the only one that I could easily remove.
If I remove that drain though, no guarantees the fish will actually go into my sump. He might just stay in the overflow, but now without much water and I might still not be able to reach him.
Here are my options as I see them, so looking for other ideas or opinions.
1) Try really hard to net him. Net may not fit. I'd also have to take my canopy off to do this. Totally doable, just will take time to disconnect lights and powerheads before I do.
2) Pull secondary drain and hope the fish flows into the overflow area of sump. The drain for the this does not have any valves on it, just a union. I would then likely need to remove both drains via the unions that feed into the sump overflow and could likely net him then.
3) I recently saw it suggested to stuff filter floss into the overflow to raise the fish up to where it would be easier to net. This would also involve removing the canopy. Not sure how well this would work.
Until today. I got motivated today and got a ladder and squeezed my head under the canopy so I could look into the overflow. Oh look, there he is, perfectly fine.
So, my question is, what are the best tricks to get him out? I had this happen in my old tank with my clown, but I could get a net in there and was easily able to get him out (clowns are slow LOL). I have a bean animal drain, plus an emergency drain, plus a return line in the overflow so it's super crowded. The main drain and the emergency drain are glued in. The return is threaded but was so difficult to get on so no plans to try to remove that. The secondary drain, circled in the photo below, is the only one that I could easily remove.
If I remove that drain though, no guarantees the fish will actually go into my sump. He might just stay in the overflow, but now without much water and I might still not be able to reach him.
Here are my options as I see them, so looking for other ideas or opinions.
1) Try really hard to net him. Net may not fit. I'd also have to take my canopy off to do this. Totally doable, just will take time to disconnect lights and powerheads before I do.
2) Pull secondary drain and hope the fish flows into the overflow area of sump. The drain for the this does not have any valves on it, just a union. I would then likely need to remove both drains via the unions that feed into the sump overflow and could likely net him then.
3) I recently saw it suggested to stuff filter floss into the overflow to raise the fish up to where it would be easier to net. This would also involve removing the canopy. Not sure how well this would work.
