Green Terror got sucked into my filter sock

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seedubs1

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 28, 2011
1,335
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Indiana USA
Before i went to bed last night, I was looking in the tank to make sure everyone was still present and accounted for. I noticed that the GT wasn't anywhere to be found.

My wife mentioned that it might be in the filter as we've had small fish get sucked in there before.....But nothing as big as a 3" GT.

I thought there was no freaking way, but I reached in the sock and sure enough, my hand got bit (he's a little bad a** for a 3"er.....already biting).

Anyway, released him back into the tank and turned down the flowrate really low (durso is now gurgling). He was swimming with a big lean for a while (almost horizontil). His head is all scuffed up and his dorsal fin is a little torn, which I assume is from going over the overflow teeth, being sucked down the Durso pipe, and then being tossed around in a filter sock for a while.

He ate some NLS this morning, and is doing a lot better swimming, but man does he look beat up.

Poor little guy. He was going to be a stunner. Had a TON of color for how small he still was. I really hope he heals up and ends up as nice as he would have.
 
He sould heel up fine, unless any of the dorsal spines were broken he should look as good as new in no time. I would deffinatly do somthing about the filter intake though.
 
i once had a 3" oscar do the same ...unfourtunately he didn't make it, but he was also in the tube of an Aquaclear 200.
 
Yeah, one dorsal spine is broken. The rest are ok.

Now, should I use some melafix? Fish in this tank are Juvies, and I've never used the stuff on anything small. Or should I just let him heal on his own (water parameters are good).

And I'm not really sure what to do about the overflow intake. It's got teeth cut into it. Maybe I can figure out some way to put some egg crate behind the teeth that go up higher. I'll have to take a look at it.
 
Melafix is basically tea tree oil and will not harm your juvie fish. As for the overflow, get a large aquaclear sponge, slit it horizontally about half way and place it over the top of the overflow to where the sponge presses upon the top of the lid. This will create a barrier that will prevent fish from going over. If it works for cardinal tetras, it should work for your green terror.
 
Yes I agree Andrew's fix for the overflow sounds like a good idea. As far as the Malafix goes I don't use it but as stated it wouln't hurt just not sure how much good it actually does. As long as the water is clean and fresh I'm sure it'll heel fine if it's just a few scrapes. The dorasl spine is most likly permently damaged.

One thing I started using on my tanks has been UV sterlizers, I started using them about a year ago and the results are amazing. I don't worry about infections from wounds anymore, I have a school of BATS in one of my tanks and several of them have gotten severly mauled (one had half it's face ripped off) swimming to close to a log and being grabbed by a cichlid waiting in ambush, these would have surly gotten infected and died without the UV. They are more than worth the investment IMO.
 
It's been about a week now.

He's eating tons of food, looks really good again, and chases the pictus all over the tank being a bad a##. All colored up nice like he was before. His forehead is all healed up, and everything is good again.....Minus the one broken dorsal spine (it's for sure permanently broken).

Used melafix.....Seemed to help the healing a bit I suppose. No infections, so no complaints. But I really don't know if it for sure did anything. All I know is it didn't do anything bad. healing did seem to be pretty speedy though.
 
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