Do healthy fish ever get stuck on powerheads??

[dixiedog]

I'm doubting it ever happens, right??

It's just that this morning I found what I had THOUGHT was my healthy neon goby, stuck to my MP10 - dead, of course. It just made me wonder, him being a small fish and all.

My dumb@ss tailspot always looks like he's flirting with disaster, as he munches algae on the sides of the MP10 ... you can see it pulling on him, but he always seems to get away ....:spin2:

BTW, the odds are my MP10 was in night mode when the neon got on it. Which makes me feel all the more that he was dead or dying at the time. But I must have missed any signs of him being ill, if there were any.

 

[dnov99]

Anything is possible, especially a neon goby is not a strong swimming fish, it could have been sucked in and not able to get away. sorry.

 

[gablett]

We had a blue damsel get stuck on one once. Scrapped it off and it swam away just fine!

 

[luther1200]

I don't think so. I think people are qucik to use PH as scapegoats a lot. I see all kinds of fish around strong PH's and never get stuck. Just think about it, if a fish dies or can't swim well from being ill, where will it most likely wind up? Unless it was under a rock when it died chances are it will wind up on the side of a PH. If healthy fish really got stuck to PH's I think we would see it all the time instead of every once in a while.

 

[SaltieG]

Any fish I ever had which got stuck to any powerhead or intake was already on its way out.

 

[jthomps123]

I had a two year old fat and healthy mandarin that I found dead the day after i changed my vortech mp40 to reef rest mode from short pulse.

What is a bigger coincidence? That an establised fish that showed no signs of sickness, weakness or lethargy is found dead on a strong powerhead the day after switching it to full-on mode.

 

[stanlalee]

puffers and weak swimmers can be unable to free themselves from the suction of strong powerheads but people will swear it never happens. honestly I've never seen it with propeller style pumps we use now but back with the conventional powerheads I've seen it happen.

 

[Plasma]

I have lost a healthy strawberry basslet and a healthy green chromis to powerheads....

 

[nikon187]

I have a neon goby with 2 mp40's and he is fine around it, even my lawnmower sits on it while running. I run them on reefcrest 100%

 

[spleify]

IMO, no. A healthy fish will not get stuck on a power head.

 

[Rstjean2]

if your powerheads turn off and on from a wave maker the fish could have swam in while it was off the got killed when it turned back on.

 

[Shock130]

I had a yellow tang get stuck to my vortech, twice, it died a few days later.

 

[grizwalt333]

I have a healthy clown that got pulled in to my Koralia when i switched to using them. There was very little water above the PH at the time it created a vortex on the surface. He got sucked in, I pushed him off right away, this was a couple days after I added them so I imagine that he might have done that once before and got away by himself. I moved them down and they swim around them all the time.

 

[davew0670]

Kept my friends 5 year old tang while he changed tanks. Came home and found him plastered to the side of an mp40.

 

[cman_pogey]

I only lost a little chromis to a PH, nothing major like a tang or anything, but one of my fish none the less

 

[Juruense]

It is exceedingly rare for a healthy fish to stick itself to an intake, in almost all cases this behavior indicates the fish is not healthy. I do have a Ctenopoma acutirostre that sleeps stuck to intakes sometimes but he is the only fish I have ever observed in 32 years of fish keeping that does this just because he can and not because he is dying.

 

[patsfan1130]

My CT will swim up to my MP40 and intentionally stick himself to it, sit there for a few minutes and swim away. quite amusing

 

[JeF4y]

There are no absolutes. None. It's impossible to say that healthy fish cannot get stuck to a powerhead, just as it's impossible to say that a fish was sick when it got stuck there.

Personally, I believe it's a possibility that healthy fish end up in the wrong place at the wrong time for one reason or another (curiosity, danger, food, etc) and end up getting sucked in, in such a manner that they can't break free from. Is it common? Not really. Does it happen? Well, we read about it so I'm guessing it does.

I think it depends on the fish, the situation and pure dumb luck. I have a lawnmower blenny that cleans the INSIDE of my Koralia 3's while they're running. He will also clean the outside (intake side) and lay there for a while before moving on. He's a lunatic... Will see what happens to him when we get the MP-40 in spring.

 

[jb61264]

I would have to disagree with people stating that a fish can't get stuck in a powerhead...case in point years ago I was using a Aquaclear powerhead...one of those that have a "conical" piece that fits on the end of the intake. A smaller fish may take refuge in the conical piece at night and unsuspectingly get stuck up in there

Of course, with the newer internal powerheads like Koralias or Tunzes, etc...this is a lot less likely, but I'm sure some people still may use the AquaClear type powerheads in their display tank and as I outlined above, a fish could get caught.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

My female ocellaris got stuck on a tunze that turns on and off. Turned of the powerhead, she swam away and spawned he next day right on schedule.