dogface and powerheads

[fishfreak2407]

well I picked up a 4-5in dog face puff, couldnt wait to get of work to go check on him1. got home to find him stuck to my 802 powerhead intake:eek2: , basically dead, with an awful suction type wound from the powerhead!. so live and learn I changed those power heads out for some old penquins I had,which have way less power. went to my lfs and bought a beutifull 3 in dog face, one hour later STUCK TO MY POWERHEAD!!!!!!. got him off and proceeded to put poly fill type diapers on all my intakes power heads and backfilters. tank looks like shibby but puff is safe.I still cant beleive that these puffs cant get themselfs free, has anyone else had this happen
thnx for letting me ramble and I hope this post helps some puff somewhere

 

[XtrmCHoPZ]

YES i have had it happen and EVERY time I answer a post about puffers, I ALWAYS WORN PEOPLE ABOUT THIS!!!!!!!!!! You need to be very careful with them. THey look like strong swimmers, but their skin is very loose and when they swim next to a powerhead the ALWAYS get stuck, they will start to blow up and freak out. INstead of trying to swim away they blow up and hurt themselves more, I think they feel that blowing will help them. YOu have to ALWAYS make sure EVERY intake on EVERY pump, filter, powerhead etc, is safe....either put some kind of screen or filter on it. The 802 phead that you have has a prefilter that you can add to it. it s a lil bulky though, but helps clear the water too. If u use maxijets put the little screen on them. I cant tell people enough about this it seems. I lost 3 puffers early on in my newbi days and have since NEVER added a puff if theres intake that aret covered!

 

[soundgeek]

I lost one last week to the same thing. He made it a couple of days after it happening but it got to the point were he swole so bad he couldn't even swim. All I use now is the return from my sump, no powerheads.

 

[mitzel]

This happens a lot . If you have enough rock you can use the rocks to stsck around the intake but if you dont have it stacked that high then the prefilters are the way to go . I have seen a wiffle balll used but it honestly looke worse than the pre filters .Knock on wood none of my fish have yet to get stuck to the power heads . but in saying that I more than likely kinxed my self

 

[XtrmCHoPZ]

It stinks that this happens a lot. Im not bashing anyone, so dont get me wrong, but I wish people would research things more before they decide to buy them and add them to their tank. People working at ANY LFS should know this, if they dont then they shouldnt sell puffers IMO. And its not just puffers that can get stuck or sucked into powerheads, Ive lost percula clowns back in the day to powerhaeds and have seen rays get stuck to them at my LFS.

 

[fishfreak2407]

man this is crazy, and I think this topic should be PERMENENT somewhere since this is not an isolated incident.I like to think I research things alot and I NEVER heard of this before until I had it happen TWICE(duhh) to me, and the first time killed the poor puff I have so much poly fiber on ALL my filters I think the puff is gonna have to go, it really takes away from the looks of the tank this whole situation sux ....mods please make this public knowledge:reading: you know its funny you (I) have heard about this problem with anemones, but NEVER puffs. please lets do something to get the word out .

thnx Fishfreak2407

 

[brownsugar]

sorri to hear about your puffer

my racoon butterfly suffered a similar fate one of its fins got caught into a powerhead intake which was under my live rock , went unoticed for a couple of days died of injuries sustained and stress associated

 

[soundgeek]

I don't have powerheads in my fish only tank and wasn't aware of the problem so when my tank started leaking I put all the fish in another one and put in a powerhead for circulation while I fixed the leak. I didn't have any clue and the day I planned to move everything back I found my dogface sucked in. He made it a couple days before he died. I am glad it didn't happen to any of my other puffers.

 

[fishfreak2407]

the only reason I have the powerheads is for water circulation for my live rock . if I didnt need them I would get them out.

soundgeek you dont have rock in your tank?

 

[soundgeek]

Yeah I have about 30lbs and it starts to look bad after a while so I usually scrub it right before a water change or sometimes i pull the rock out after the water change and scrub it in the bucket of old water. It is a pain but it is about that time for me to do it now.

 

[cornelious0_0]

The exact same thing happened to my dogface...picked up one that was about 4 inches and he was "toast" overnight. I really shouldn't have bought it anyways, as I was very in-experienced at the time...but it is a little comforting to know that I'm not the only person this has happened to.

 

[SoonerFan732]

Does the spiny box puffer get caught in the powerhead intakes often like other puffer fish?

I am thinking of adding one, but I have a couple of Seio 2600's in the main display.

 

[cornelious0_0]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7331015#post7331015 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SoonerFan732
Does the spiny box puffer get caught in the powerhead intakes often like other puffer fish?

I am thinking of adding one, but I have a couple of Seio 2600's in the main display.

After seeing one, I would think so...but I couldn't say for sure. i would assume their skin is more or less the same, and anything relatively small might have a hard time avoiding an unprotected powerhead.

 

[XtrmCHoPZ]

YOu should be ok with Seio powerheads, make sure the intake is still gaurded though. I had a spiny puffer that got stuck to a little powerhead a while ago.....he didnt get damaged as bad as the "softer"puffers. still dont let it happen

 

[cornelious0_0]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7331792#post7331792 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by XtrmCHoPZ
YOu should be ok with Seio powerheads, make sure the intake is still gaurded though. I had a spiny puffer that got stuck to a little powerhead a while ago.....he didnt get damaged as bad as the "softer"puffers. still dont let it happen

Good to hear they're not quite as suseptible as my dogface was...I felt so sorry for the guy, but there was nobody to blame but myself.

 

[saltyESQ]

I was reading that that you must atleast put some sort of grates on intakes.

but my buddy has a aqua clear 500 filter on the back of his fowlr and the filter has the pointed grate and his porc puffer got stuck and was killed.

any other suggestions on how to protect puffers from powerheads and filters?

 

[fishfreak2407]

the best way to avoid a tragedy is to use a foam prefilter or wrap the intakes with filter floss or something like that otherwise its bye bye puff

 

[saltyESQ]

then I assume you must change the filter floss weekly?
and how do you get the filter floss to stay on (is it just my suction?)

 

[mitzel]

I don't know about in your area but at the local lowes hardware store ,homedepot too if you go to the garden center where they keep the out door pond accessories . they have the heavy duty slip on prefilters . They are big and kind ugly but they are heavy duty enough that you can wash them out a few hundred times before they fell apart . Just my opinion but I would rather have a healthy fish and an ugly powerhead . I'm planning on picking a couple pair up on pay day. they are 7 bucks for two of them .


:wildone:

 

[fishfreak2407]

like mitzel said there are options at h.d and lfs .................I used zip ties to hold the filter pad around the power head and yes it becomes a debris trap and looks awful so I got rid of my puff and put my tank back to normal.

p.s and it was more of a pad then floss hope this helps your puff from being eatin by a power head cuz it really sux to come home to that