EMERGENCY -fish stuck in sump tank.

[kamehameha]

My yellow watchman goby is stuck in the first bay of my sump and I don't know how to get him out! There is no access to the bay aside from the hole for the plumbing to drop water in. I saw how he got there and fixed that problem, but I cant get him to swim up to the top and into the next bay where I can rescue him.

The sump cannot be taken out of the stand unless I drain the tank and take the sump out through the top of the stand. He isn't in this picture, its from earlier. Any Ideas of something I could use to get him out? I tried my water change syphon with the bell end removed but its not strong enough suction.

 

[TexanCanuck]

Oh goodness! I'm sorry for the little guy!

We've all been there so don't panic. He'll be OK for a day or so until you devise a way to get him out.

I'd start by turning the lights off and reducing the flowcrate through the sump (if possible) just to reduce stress on the fish and get him to calm down. I wouldn't stop the flow through the sump entirely though - you want to keep the life support up for both the fish and your tank until you figure it out.

Once the fish doesn't look too freaked out anymore, could you maybe try and add a little food down the overflow so it ends up in the same compartment with the fish ... the idea here is to get that food to flow up and over the weir into the second compartment, and for the fish to try and chase it as it goes ...

Failing that, perhaps you could use a hole saw to cut an opening into the top of the sump in that compartment to get a small net inside and catch him.

Failing that, perhaps you could build a small fish trap out of an old plastic soda bottle (cleaned properly, of course) ... there are lots of plans for creating a trap out of a plastic bottle by cutting off the top third and gluing it back together inverted with some food inside ... perhaps you could tie a small piece of string to the trap to pull it out of the sump once he's inside (assuming of course that you can find a bottle small enough to fit into that part of your sump and find a way to get it inside).

Be patient ... it may take a while but as long as you don't physically injure the fish trying to grab him with anything he will be OK for quite a while.

 

[thresher]

If worse come to worse I'd say find some tiny barbless hooks. Put a small piece of shrimp and fish him out. I've never tried anything like this but it has crossed my mind a few times when trying to get a stubborn or difficult fish out of my tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Shut down pump and remove media and allow fish to enter main chamber and then net it

 

[TexanCanuck]

Shut down pump and remove media and allow fish to enter main chamber and then net it

It's a wet-dry trickle filter ... so if he shuts down the pump and removes the media in the second chamber, the water level will drop to the top of the weir and the fish can't escape from the first chamber.

 

[stealyourhouse]

Did you try starting the siphon using suction? This happened to me recently with a pistol shrimp, and I put some tubing into the sump that was wider than the shrimp, sucked on it to start a siphon into a shallow container next to the sump. and then sucked the shrimp up.

 

[kamehameha]

Did you try starting the siphon using suction? This happened to me recently with a pistol shrimp, and I put some tubing into the sump that was wider than the shrimp, sucked on it to start a siphon into a shallow container next to the sump. and then sucked the shrimp up.

I truly hope you never steal my house, but you are my hero. So, in the event that you did steal my house, I wouldn't even be that mad about it! please don't...

That worked like a charm, one hard suck (for lack of better words) on the hose after I wriggled it into place over his unsuspecting head, it pulled him right up out of there and into the second sump bay. Then I just netted his daredevil fish butt back into the big tank!

Also thanks for all of the other suggestions as well, I did try the fish trap first, but my fishing line broke, so I now have a piece of vinyl tubing and a plastic cap stuck down there lol, better than a goby!

This fine yellow fellow says thank you!!!

P.S. I fixed the gap on the overflow with a bunch of sponges for now, until I can think of a better way to close the gap between the top of the overflow and the lid. THANK YOU, thank you, ThAnK yOu!!!

 

[i cant think]

I truly hope you never steal my house, but you are my hero. So, in the event that you did steal my house, I wouldn't even be that mad about it! please don't...

That worked like a charm, one hard suck (for lack of better words) on the hose after I wriggled it into place over his unsuspecting head, it pulled him right up out of there and into the second sump bay. Then I just netted his daredevil fish butt back into the big tank!

Also thanks for all of the other suggestions as well, I did try the fish trap first, but my fishing line broke, so I now have a piece of vinyl tubing and a plastic cap stuck down there lol, better than a goby!

This fine yellow fellow says thank you!!!

P.S. I fixed the gap on the overflow with a bunch of sponges for now, until I can think of a better way to close the gap between the top of the overflow and the lid. THANK YOU, thank you, ThAnK yOu!!!

Glad to know you got him out!! I had a similar thing happen with my naoko fairy while doing a water change on my Red Sea max nano… It was a nightmare to get him out. I’ll get a photo of the chamber he was under most of the time during the water change today.
At some point when I had my eyes off of him he went through the hole where the return for the flow goes, then he some how made his way down the grate under the RO refill. It was only after the water change I realised the naoko had gone missing, he was sat there calm and not stressed for Atleast 4 hours until I realised to check the RO and he was under the grate when I did. Some fish just do it because it’s calm and you can’t get stressed down there (Especially “deep” water species that are 3 meters to 97 meters down since it almost reminds them of home).

For sure wasn’t as bad as your situation haha - Gobies aren’t as active as wrasses which is what makes it harder to find.