Fish in overflow

Satori

Satori

Cancer Sucks
Alright, so I've gotten pretty good at catching fish in the tank, but now one of my wrasses slid into the overflow. There's no room in there for a trap, and I can't raise the water level above the top of the teeth to let him swim out.

How do you catch a fish in an overflow??
 
Did you try chopsticks? :lol:

Actually, I have been able to catch fish in tight spaces with a fat siphon hose. It just depends on how big they are and how much water you have to drain. The wrasse is probably too big /too strong of a swimmer for that trick.

Any chance you could drain the water in the overflow down to a very low level and then reach in and get him with your hand? i don't know how easy it would be to reach in there around your standpipes (which are sealed in, aren't they?)

Hope you get him.
 
Chopsticks! :D

I'm pretty sure I couldn't get him with a siphon hose, I've never had much luck with that method. I went and bought a net and squeezed it in there, hoping he'll swim in.
 
[copied from post re hippo in corner tank overflow]

Turn off the pump, empty the sump to very low level, pull the standpipe out and let the water drain down the hose to the sump....stand by with more salt water.

If too tight quarters, release the hose clamp and remove the hose in the theory the tang will just fall into the sump below.

Replace all clamps, put system back together. Hopefully the little fellow will survive the rough ride. The standpipe [at least in my kit] just pulls out and slides back in.
 
My smallest clown went into the overflow so many times we renamed him Evil K. I don't have a standpipe- just removed all the rocks and caught him with my hand, all the while chanting, "Go towards the light!" One time he got down to the sump. And each time he went over those rocks in the overflow, just like niagra falls. As I removed the rock, the force and turbulance increased, and he'd be flipping around in the bottom. Very nerve- wracking.
 
Thanks for the replies!
Well, my standpipes are threaded, and removeable. That will be my last resort though. I'll give the fish net a few days and just check it often. Right now the net is new and he's nowhere to be seen. Must have gone to the bottom of the chamber. Of course, it's 24 inches tall, and I can't see all the way in there.

The overflow holds 15 gallons, there's a lot of flow, and food goes by, so he'll be fine in there for a while.
 
Sometimes it is not worth risking the survival of the tank by dismanteling it for 1 fish ( draining the sump and taking out stand pipe).One life is not worth several in my opinion. Mike I think you are doing the right thing by riding it out with the net strategy.
 
I have had luck with turning the pumps off, then feeding a frozen floating food cube in the overflow. When the fish comes to the surface to eat the food, try to scoop it with the net. Maybe you could bait the net too.
GL
 
Oh, the other trick that worked for me, was to put a filter sock on the drain pipe in the sump. Then remove any strainer from the drains. In one or two nights, it is likely to swim to close to the drain and get sucked down into the filter sock.
 
I tried baiting the net, but he just went deep where I couldn't see him and the food melted and slipped through the net. :)

My drain pipe outlet is only about an inch off the bottom of the sump, so no room for a net or filter sock.

Thanks for the ideas though.

I almost got lucky. I was digging the net down deep (blindly) hoping to accidentally scoop him. Suddenly he jumped up out of the water and almost landed back in the main tank. :fish1:
 
I'd have to take the canopy off to see down in the overflow to net him. I'll give it a week or so. If I can't get him with the net near the surface or if he doesn't accidentally get sucked into the durso into the sump, that's what I'll do.
 
Hey...............we should cut pieces of eggcrate that will fit on the bottom of our overflows. Then when a fish goes in there we raise it. Voila!!
 
I just pull my stand pipes when that happens and then net it or hand scoop it from the sump . You don't even have to kill the return pump .
 
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