Fish living in FX5

[Nick Park]

I was giving one of my canister filters for my African tank its monthly clean. I took out all the baskets of media, then began to rinse the casing with water from the hot tap. I saw what looked like a piece of plant root, picked it up in my hand, and then felt it wriggle. Realised that it was a young mbuna.


It was over an inch long, and too big to fit through the mesh on the intake, so I can only assume that it swam in there when it was smaller and has survived and grown in the filter. Is that even possible?

I threw it back in the tank and it's swimming normally

 

[deeda]

Yes very possible, I often find large juvenile Mbuna in my big Eheim filters.

 

[The Morning]

Same here. The other week I cleaned out an eheim and found 5 fry. I have also found fry in the Fx6. Not sure how they survive with that turbulent flow.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

It was over an inch long, and too big to fit through the mesh on the intake, so I can only assume that it swam in there when it was smaller and has survived and grown in the filter. Is that even possible?

Totally possible. On a local messageboard long ago for a few years we had new people people posting every week or two about finding baby fish in their canisters or HOBs. Seemed to follow the same theme, "OMG, where did they come from? What species are they?" etc.

We named the newly discovered species the "Filter Guppy"

As long as fry are small enough to fit through the intake strainer it's usually a pretty good place to live in there for them. Nice water flow, food delivered straight to you. Very few filters have the water go through the impeller before it gets to the filter media. So it's usually pretty safe.

 

[Nick Park]

I guess the LED lights in the tank seem pretty bright for it after being in total darkness!

 

[TheReefer]

I was giving one of my canister filters for my African tank its monthly clean. I took out all the baskets of media, then began to rinse the casing with water from the hot tap. I saw what looked like a piece of plant root, picked it up in my hand, and then felt it wriggle. Realised that it was a young mbuna.

View attachment 1373775
It was over an inch long, and too big to fit through the mesh on the intake, so I can only assume that it swam in there when it was smaller and has survived and grown in the filter. Is that even possible?

I threw it back in the tank and it's swimming normally

I had overflows in 20 gallon tanks that I used to breed apistos, shell dwellers, etc. and often found babies in there too

 

[xraycer]

Happened to me. 6 years ago, I picked up a bunch of New World cichlid juvies. One was a carpinitis. One day, a few months in, I realized it had vanished. Figured it passed, and it's tank mate took care of it's remains. A month later, I went to clean the Odyssea canister (FX clone), and going the little guy inside.
Grew up to be a really nice fish

 

[mattybecks]

I had the same experience with convict cichlids in my old sump set up. Survived 4 months till I noticed them.

 

[krichardson]

While I've never rescued any of my fish from FX filters I have removed a few from my prefilter skimmer box.I've had fish that were big enough that they had to remain in a vertical position while they were in there.