Lost my tang today

kgstei · Mar 6, 2015

Woke up this morning, turned on the lights and found my yellow tang sucked up against the circulation powerhead,(maxjet900} second time I have had this happen to a fish, last time was a puffer and a different powerhead, he was bruised but happily survived. Any suggestions on how to avoid this again? Its a 65G tank and I had moved some of the rocks around yesterday which I'm guessing contributed to the problem. Thanks Kurt Maybe I should check for spelling before I post.

Bryan47 · Mar 6, 2015

I'm so sorry to hear this! I had the exact same thing happen to my tang and I was devastated. Was the power head spinning the wrong way? Like was he sucked to the front of it ? If so you need to switch to DC pumps like the jebaos. I've almost switched all of mine over. Same thing happend to my trigger. I cried like a baby when I lost him. Your going to have a lot of losses in this hobby but just know that you're doing the best you can to give them a good home.

If they're getting sucked to the side and it is spinning the right way I hear there is a lady who sells kits that you can put around them to protect that from happening. Hopefully someone else can chime in. I'm actually thinking of going to today to get a new tang because my tank just isn't the same without their great personalities!

kgstei · Mar 6, 2015

Hi Bryan The tang definitely had the best personality In the tank. It was sucked into the side. I moved rocks and the powerhead yesterday which most likely was his downfall. I think I may change out to smaller powerheads for circulation.

Bryan47 · Mar 8, 2015

I'm using jebao rw-4's and they're great power for their size. Again so sorry for your loss!

icycoral · Mar 8, 2015

I would say ditch the maxijets and go with just about any other pump. Vortechs, Tunze, koralias, and (sigh) even jebos would be better than a maxi-jet inside your tank. The only thing I really use maxi-jets for is as feed pumps to equipment pretty much in sump only.

Reefing Madness · Mar 8, 2015

Powerheads don't kill fish, dead or dieing fish get stuck against them. He was already ill and weak. I use 3200gph powerheads, and even my Mollies don't get stuck to them.

Bryan47 · Mar 8, 2015

Yes Reefing madness is 100% correct. I have lost two fish to this problem. The first was because the power head was operating backwards and the tang was the perfect size and shape to get sucked to it.

My trigger however was acting very different and was not himself for two days and I knew something was up. Fish are strong enough to swim away from a power head if they are strong. My lawnmower blenny just sat on my power head and swam all around it and had no problems.

Icycoral why the sigh for jebaos?