I went out to local fish shop yesterday and came home with Kuhli loaches, rummies and a lovely swordtail fighter....put the loaches and rummies in my other tank and fighter in my 40L tank, anyway I noticed he kept getting stuck to the filter sucker thingie. so I thought I would take it off (DUH) and came back an hour later to find him stuck in the filter and dead .

How can I stop this happening again! I have a jebo R338.

Put a sponge on the end of the filter pipe? Not sure what the filter looks like

Generally if the fish is getting stuck to the filter intake it's practically dead already.

We have a similar tank. Taking advice and observing others we covered the intake cage of the filter with two layers of stockings. Kim had some oldies that she was meaning to throw out anyways. Give it a shot (use rubbers to hold it in place).

Generally if the fish is getting stuck to the filter intake it's practically dead already

I think we've discussed this before...and the general conscensus was as Ira put it...HOWEVER, with that said...I suppose if a fishy was just feeling ill, but able to recover...it could possible get stuck in his weakened state, but if didn't get stuck he could recover...isn't that possible?

BlueandKim...but doesn't the debris get stuck in the stockings? I guess I'm thinking it would clog things up before even getting into the filter??? Someone also recommended a hair curler, only I don't remember how you would hold it to the filter :roll:

Hi Caper,

Yes, it will prevent large debris from going up there, but you don't really want large debris going into this type if filter anyways. It goes through the powerhead and then goes onto a filter medium via a tube with holes "spray bar". Large debris quickly clogs these up anyways. Another bonus of having the stocking is that fry don't get sucked up.... and everyone that sees it wonders why you have a stocking in your intake

I have lost a lot of fish the same way and now use a cut out piece of mesh fabric (net curtaining stuff) held over the intake part with a rubber band it is wider mesh than pantyhose but does the same trick...and it WORKS!. The fish I lost being sucked into the filter were not dead when they got sucked in but became damaged with being trapped....some survived once the filter was turned off (and they could limp away) but of the ones that did most of them died a short time later.