Fish in Overflow Box

[infinityends]

I've ran into this a few times over the years. Occasionally a fish will find its way into the overflow box via jumping or something.

In this case, I believe the fish (male clown) was sucked into the overflow box where there is a half circle cut out where a second return could exit the overflow box. For some reason this pair of clowns always hangs our at the very top of the tank. The poor male clown managed to wind up in there twice yesterday. I have him in a floating breeder box in the sump to let him rest for a day or two since I believe that he probably wound up in the overflow the second time due to poor positioning of where these clowns hang out, and being tired and stressed from the first time he wound up in the overflow.

Any suggestions on blocking/sealing that slot for a secondary return? Ideally it would still allow water flow. I may just try cramming some thing like filter floss in there, but something that won't clog and need to be swapped frequently would be more useful.

 

[reef lover]

Acrylic mesh glued over it??

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

You might try changing the rock work around or power-head positioning, which might change their preferred hangout location. Long term you might want to look for a clown host, such as an anemone.

 

[Roosterjack]

I have a small yellow watchman goby living in the bottom of my drilled tank overflow area. I got him out once and a few days later he was back In. He gets enough food so his butt is staying there until I next need to do a major maintenance.

 

[infinityends]

I found some black egg crate laying around and cut that to about 3x3” and was able to wedge it into the slot so I think that should work well without restricting water flow. A small skinny fish maybe could still get through but it should mostly prevent the issue.

As far as the weird clowns at the top of the tank behavior. I do actually have a large frogspawn that my previous pair of clowns hosted in. This pair has never seemed interested and has hung out near to top of the tank since day 1. They kinda live right below where the auto feeder drops food, so I think that is a factor. But they luckily don’t show aggression towards the other fish when food is dropped.