First of all normally my 15g nano salt water tank has a small HOB filter for water movement as I haven't gotten the sump setup on it yet, and my 36g bow normally has an emperor 400 and a large sponge filter (mainly as a hiding spot for my Fire eel grow out) driven by an air pump. Well last week the HOB on my salt tank went out, it was around 8 years old. No biggie, I just move the air pump to the salt tank to add oxygen until I get the sump going. Well then the emperor started having problems restarting after a power failure (pretty common in my part of town due to squirrels). Well last night I got up around 11 to check on my 19 month old son in his crib and I noticed my emperor making the familiar buzzing sound meaning it wasn't working. So I take off my lid and dump the fire eel out of the back of the emperor so I could take it to the kitchen to clean it out in an effort to get it going again. So I clear out half of the sink and go retrieve the filter. I put the bio wheels and filter pads in the tank and Head to the sink. I start to disassemble the filter to get to the impeller. So I'm like 3/4ths asleep taking apart the filter in the sink when out pops Doug the fire eel. After I dumped him out of the filter and walked away for 15 seconds he quickly climbed back in. So I spend 10 minutes trying to catch the eel amongst dishes and filter parts. I finally scoop him into a clean bowl and plop him back into the tank and he shoots right back onto the floor and slithers under the stand. So I run and get a wire hanger and bend it to where I can rake him out from under the stand and get him carefully back into the tank. He stays this time. OK back to the filter. The cage part the the impeller slides into has broken off completely. Time to order 2 new filters I guess. Somehow while all this was going on I didn't wake up my son, my wife or even my 3 bark-happy dogs. I was very happy to make it to bed around 12 am.
