Tonight has been a night of disappointment. How is it that at a time when everything is going so well, mistakes so stupid can happen. This mistake was so simple that it could have been resolved in a matter of minute. Unfortunately, in the past two years I let this oversight continue. I would always say, "œ Man I need to order those"¦.", "œMaybe I will stop by _____ and see if they have them." Nevertheless, my laziness has cost one of my newest inhabitants their life, and me a pair of fish that I have wanted for a long time. So what is it? A simple suction screen. Who did I loose? My female Spotted Mandarin, that was paired.
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These fish were my most recent purchase, and were doing great. I loved watching both of them hover over the rocks and sand. As my last post said, I have been sick the past few weeks. Yesterday was my first full day back at work, and it was a LONG day. I didn't pay much attention to the tank. This morning I couldn't find the female dragonet, but didn't think to much about it. I checked a few more time throughout the day with zero success. Well, around 3pm I started searching the floors, overflows, sump, and socks. Nothing! I killed the pumps, and looked in the overflows again. There she was, in the bottom of the down pipe. I could see that she was lifeless and slightly pale. Curse words flew!
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So what was the problem. As with most situations like these, it is not one mistake that doomed me. There were multiple areas that could have prevented this from happening. First, I purchased this tank used and the prior owner punched out the tabs in the overflow. This was meant to have a return pipe travel through, but I am using both holes as drains. Therefore these holes were left open. I imagine she simply swam through the hole looking for pods.
The next mistake (and biggest, and simplest to solve) was the fact I didn't use suction screens when I completed the overflow. I just kept putting it off. Well as a result a snail shell became stuck at the bottom of the pipe (around the area of the bulkhead). When the dragonet got sucked down the pipe, she could pass between the shell and pipe walls. Poor thing"¦ Had the shell not been clogging the pipe, she would have likely gone for a wild ride, but survived.
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So what have I done? I plugged the overflow hole in the overflow. I have ordered the suction screens. I have also removed the shell from the pipe. Just so damn mad!
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PLEASE USE SUCTION SCREENS!