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fish stuck in back chamber


jhealey

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HELP!!! Aquarium owner (son) is gone for the week, and of course the trouble begins.....Watchman goby has gone AWOL in the back chamber of BIOCUBE 14. Earlier today I found him in chamber 3 (although he was running between chambers 2 and 3, but even after removing the power head, heater, skimmer and bioballs, I could not get him. There is a small 'window' labeled 'minimum' and 'maximum' on the left hand side of the tank, and he seems to be able to wedge himself between the cut-out window on the side wall and clear plastic on the left outside wall...Tried again a little while ago to tempt him with shrimp in net, but he did not make himself visible this time. I'm assuming he is still wedged in that window area. So, my concerns:

 

How do I get him out?

 

Can he survive in the back chamber?

 

I have stirred up loads of crap in the water after removing filters, sponge, bio-balls, etc. from the tank. The water looks awful. Add to that the shrimp I used trying to lure goby out in the open and I'm worried that I have wrecked the water quality. What to do?

 

Should I have another go at catching this guy? The corals look pretty bad very quickly when I turn everything off to get to the back chambers.....

 

Thanks for any input. Mary

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this is john aka son and any input at all would be greatly appreciated. I tired getting everything set up so when i left my mom would just have to feed and cycle the lights, and of course something goes wrong. In the tank currently is a clown, clown goby, and the ywg with various soft corals and lps. Thanks!

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Turkey Baster

If he is swimming between the chambers, I'd set up a net in the opening between the two chambers and chase him into the net using your hand. If he's in the cmall window, use your finger and scare the little guy out... these fish are scared of big things. As soon as he gets in the net, pull it straight up and out of the water, then dump him in the display. I'd also do a large 20% WC to help clean the water.

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travisurfer

you can always just catch him the old fashioned way with your hands. good luck.

 

EDIT: when you're done, i'd go ahead and siphon out the junk in the back to avoid messing up the rest of the tank

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My serpent starfish did the same thing in my nano. He was a little easier to get out after taking the top off. Maybe let the little guy get hungry and try with the shrimp in the net again. That's about all the advice I can give you. Best of luck!

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thanks for the replies, she told me that she tried with the net but it wasnt working. On the phone she just said that no matter what she did the fish would not come out of hiding. I guess eventually it would come out. I figure since it has water is should be fine even if it take a few days? any more suggestions are welcome too! Thanks!

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get some tubing that is over 1/2" in D and suck that SOB out DONE

Gotta remember that this is his mom taking care of his tank. Prob not too good on DIY tubing & sucking, if they don't know anything about tanks. I know my mom wouldn't even know what PVC pipe is...

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stratosphere

Ok, this EXACT same thing happened to me a few months ago. I mean EXACT--YWG stuck in the "window" of Chamber 3 of my BC14.

 

Here's what we did to successfully get him out:

 

1. remove all pumps/sponges, etc. from Ch 3

 

2. chase the YWG out of the "window" using a qtip by prodding around the sides with it. If the Qtip is not long enough, use a bamboo skewer with cotton wrapped around the blunt end as padding. I couldn't really see him, but I knew he was there because once in a while I could see his tail or something yellow in the slot. Eventually he got tired of being harrassed/chased by the Qtip up and down in the "window" section and swam into Ch. 3.

 

3. When the goby is in Ch. 3 he will be on the bottom. These guys chill out on the bottom. Use that opportunity to stuff the "window" full of filter floss to keep him from swimming right back in there while you're trying to catch him in the next step.

 

4. Catch the goby! You can now try to catch him with your hand, but you won't succeed. I tried that for an hour and he just swam around and around my hand. You have two choice here--a quicker one and a more complicated one.

A.) Quick one is to stop up the outlet tube into the main tank with a stopper of some sort (we had a rubber wine cork used to pump air out of your half-consumed wine bottle that worked perfectly--but I think several layers of saran-wrap and some rubber bands may have worked, too...). The key is to stop it up so you can drain just Chambers 3 and 2 (which are connected, as you know) with a siphon. When the water level is low enough, you can just scoop up the YWG and dump him in the main tank.

B.) The more involved way is to make a little custom net to scoop him up with. Take a coat hanger, and bend one end into a square a bit smaller than the bottom of Chamber 3--take into account the fact that the bottom of Chamber three is divided into two by the little sponge holder. Take the toe end of a nylon stocking and cut it just long enough to make a bit of a sagging net, then use electrical tape (easier) or super glue (messier by far) to attach the nylon "netting" to the wire frame. Now you have a custom net to scoop him out with and it is fairly easy to scoot it under him and then scoop him out.

 

5. Fashion a jump guard to keep this from happening again (although I say that and STILL haven't installed mine...even with the acrylic and glue sitting ready to go--this reminds me to do that tonight!).

 

Good luck!!

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Thanks so much, ill try to relay that to my mom later this afternoon and see how it goes!

 

And lets say for sake of argument this take more than a few tries, like over the course of a few days, will the fish be fine? How long will it be safe for? Thanks!

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Thanks so much, ill try to relay that to my mom later this afternoon and see how it goes!

 

And lets say for sake of argument this take more than a few tries, like over the course of a few days, will the fish be fine? How long will it be safe for? Thanks!

 

can it reach the intake to the pump? if so, it will only be safe as long as it avoids the intake.

 

my tank record:

clown: 0

MJ-900: 1

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I had the same problem in my Biocube with my fish... I found a small plastic cup and submerged so it was standing on top of the pump... then I turned off the power (water pump shut down causing water level to rise in the third chamber). I put some feed in to get the fish to come up, then I slowly reached in and pulled the cup under the fish and pulled him out.

 

After that happened the second time, I went to Lowe's and had them cut an acrylic sheet to the size I needed to create a divider... hope this helps.

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Gotta remember that this is his mom taking care of his tank. Prob not too good on DIY tubing & sucking, if they don't know anything about tanks. I know my mom wouldn't even know what PVC pipe is...

 

god i wish u were one of my close buddies, there are about a million haha's i could have gotten out of this one. lol

 

did u get little dude out yet?

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stratosphere
Thanks so much, ill try to relay that to my mom later this afternoon and see how it goes!

 

And lets say for sake of argument this take more than a few tries, like over the course of a few days, will the fish be fine? How long will it be safe for? Thanks!

 

No worries - that's the beauty of these forums. No matter what you're going through, someone out there has probably been through the exact same thing. Happy to help if I can.

 

He'll probably be OK back there for a few days. After mine got stuck in Chamber 3 (the first time) he went a month or two before jumping in the back again (and my lazy self hadn't installed the jump guard)--that second time he jumped into Chamber 1. I'm pretty sure he was back there for four or five days before I finally got a coat hanger net made up to fish him out (in Ch 1 you have to do the net or a big siphon--you can't totally drain that chamber like Ch 3). He was skinny and had two lesions on his side when we finally got him out, but he has since fattened and healed up fine.

 

I had the same problem in my Biocube with my fish... I found a small plastic cup and submerged so it was standing on top of the pump... then I turned off the power (water pump shut down causing water level to rise in the third chamber). I put some feed in to get the fish to come up, then I slowly reached in and pulled the cup under the fish and pulled him out.

 

After that happened the second time, I went to Lowe's and had them cut an acrylic sheet to the size I needed to create a divider... hope this helps.

 

This is a good technique for swimming fish, but I'm afraid it won't work for a Yellow Watchman Goby, which sit on the bottom or against the side, very rarely free swimming to dart at food, and not long enough certainly to pull a cup up underneath them. I'm sure it would work for a clown, though.

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i've used a brine shrimp net with a 90 degree bend in the handle.

 

let it drop to the floor of the chamber, with the handle pointing towards the top of the tank.

 

bait the net, then wait. when you pull up on the net, it'll probably try swimming into it. this will take some time because its a goby.

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I just got back from florida today to good news. The tank is all good and the fish is out from the back. Thanks so much stratosphere the instructions were great and my mom got him out after a few tries. Thanks for all the help!

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I just got back from florida today to good news. The tank is all good and the fish is out from the back. Thanks so much stratosphere the instructions were great and my mom got him out after a few tries. Thanks for all the help!

Woo Hoo! Glad everything turned out OK.

Dave A.

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Well the YWG did it again today. We got him out on our first try this time, drained the water in the back and scooped him out. Really a pain to do but hopefully he wont do it again. But he earned his new name, Houdini

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stratosphere

Glad to hear Houdini is fine! And very glad the instructions helped. Mine hasn't jumped in the back for a few weeks--he's overdue now! :P

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WOW, just joined this forum to get help with same problem in my biocube 29. Have a perc stuck in the back for over a week now.......A hunting I go

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yeah yesterday i went on a mission and built a pretty serious jump wall to keep everyone in the right spot. hopefully it works.

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After the 2nd time my YWG got in the back chambers I made this. Now I have them on all my AIO tanks and haven't had a fish in the back since. This is on a NC 12 but you get the idea. The longer part covers a HydorFlo and keeps it from spraying the splash guard as it rotates.

 

0705082120a.jpg

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Thats similar to what i did but i just chopped up a gladware container and extended the back wall up to right below the lights. There is about 1/4 of an inch between that and the lights and im hoping its good. It doesnt look very finished but when i upgrade lights ill make something new. But for the time being it works

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lol i had same problem,there a very simple fix for the biocubes.......I had pics on here somewhere.you take the clear plastic strip that comes with cheap glass tops like the versa ones.you just trim the height down to 3/4 inch or so.looks better then all others.heres link of stuff im talking about.it slides tight on back wall for nice fit.

 

http://pet-supplies.drsfostersmith.com/sea...amp;isort=score

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