Fish Rescue

[xeon]

I have a corner overflow that is around 5 x 7".  My 1 1/4" durso takes up a good part of this space.  My small Hippo Tang (1 1/2" or so) found his way into the overflow last night.  I put a small fish net in the overflow to block the durso opening, but otherwise access is pretty tough.  Any ideas on how to get the little bugger out?  This is probably going to be difficult.  It is a 75 gallon tank, so the overflow is around 19" deep.

[krish]

Dave,

I have the small 4" wide net. I hook up a piece of 1/2" PVC to it and chase

the fellow like H-E-L-L. He gets scared and goes thru the Durso into the sump.

Then i scoop it out and dump it back into the main tank.

I have a 6"x6" overflow chamber that has 1.5" durso stuck in there.

I had to cut the 90deg elbow to fab the durso.

 

If you were to trap him in the net, while in the overflow chamber, make sure you

draw him out along the glass side of the chamber and not against the

partition that water flows thru. Might have sharp edges.

 

I have fished out clowns, firefish, tangs, damsels this way

 

good luck

-krish

[michaelg]

when I had a fish go in the overflow, the only way I could get it out was to hand catch it.  Else pull the durso and then catch him if you can't get your arm in there...  Put a piece of acrylic or even eggcrate over the top of the overflow to prevent future problems.

[krish]

Michael/Dave,

I use a piece of gutter guard to prevent this from happening.

 

-krish

[xeon]

It looks like the best option and only option after trying a few things is to remove the durso.  The net approach doesn't work well since my bulkhead is on the side of my tank.  I have a 90 at the bottom which gives the fish a net free zone.  Coaxing him into the durso also is a pain since the pipe into my sump is essentially a sealed PVC spray bar of sorts.  I could remove the hose.... I will try that.  The way to do that just popped in my head...  At first glance rremoving the durso was what I thought, but there are issues that make this a pain in certain regions.  That will be after I try coaxing him into the sump.  

 

I don't know how he got in there.  Honestly he is so small he could have gone in through one of the overflow teeth which are like 1 1/4" to 1 1/2".  The gutter guard doesn't sound like a bad idea.  Wish me luck and thanks for the collective brainstorming.

[xeon]

To follow up on this I ended up shutting down my return pump and removing the durso.  It took me all of five minutes to complete the procedure.  Not as bad as I had thought, but then again the simple tank things seem to take unexpected turns sometimes.  I used a piece of CPVC to chase my fish up to the top of the overflow box so I could net it.  Piece of cake.  

 

I also cleaned my return pump while I was at it since the opportunity was there.  I had a little problem with my tubing on the pump slipping off after being removed a few times... a late night trip to Wal-Mart for some zip ties fixed that up.  I was glad I was close by though to hear the water squirting as the tubing slowwwly slid off the return pump.  It would have been bad if I had gone to bed.  

 

Anyway... issue resolved.

[Lee Stearns]

Dave- Darn if you are not the second one that I have heard of recently to have the flex hose come off the pump and the pump start spraying water. When I look at my system I can not fathom how I would ever have a major spill from it. Plenty of sump room to take any of the water above the corner overflows in the main tank.  BUT a pump that began sprying water from the sump would certainly empty all the sump water and overflow water. might have to try the tie-ties myself.

Was the Hippo from your recent rootzen trip?

Regards,

Lee

[xeon]

Lee,

Yes, the Hippo was from my recent trip to Roozens... which was essentially an abort operation on going to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  I had wanted to go there for some time though.  The kids enjoyed it and the wife had a good time asking me what every single fish was.  My son enjoyed the thrill of the endless supply of gravel and the room of open fish tanks.  He and I had a real battle, one which I won.  My oldest daughter became quite enamored with a seahorse she saw and the snail shells all over the floor.  I'm setting her up a 12" cube... seahorse tank maybe?  Anyway, they definitely had some interesting fish I haven't seen anywhere else... like the Moorish Idols.  I thought I also saw a pretty good size Mantis Shrimp in one tank... it was all the way to the back and left in the very bottom tank.  Overall I was satisfied with Roozens, althought there was some livestock I would not touch there.  We did make it to the Aquarium the next day and we collectively enjoyed that also.  We had a real "fishy" Memorial Day weekend.  

 

Back on topic... The zip ties work well on holding the tubing on.  I just put one behind one of the barbs on the pump output fitting.  My experience is the tubing stretches out over time... so a tight fit today may not be the same a few months down the road.