Lesson Learned.....

[Oscar Madison]

So I’m in fish room working on new tank set up. I turn around and see that my 300g is all cloudy and debris floating around. My first thought was my filter may be messed up. But then I thought to myself, where is Tiberius? (My 13” Dovii)

I freaked!!!I found him stuck in one of my big mountain decorations. He had dug out underneath and slipped in and got stuck. So he was flailing and stirring up the tank.
In a panic I almost dove in the tank to rescue him. I was able to get him out but he thrashed himself up pretty good. I do believe he will be ok, but only time will tell. He seems ok, just scraped up. I pulled the deco out. So my lesson is, big fish, big tank, no decorations!!!!

thoughts?

 

[Jexnell]

I had to learn this lesson myself. And as you finally surrendered to the fact that with big fish comes empty tanks.
Tried some branches with my Saggitae and he gathered them up into one end of the tank.... plants real or fake shredded... so now just a couple big rocks to give him a cave...

 

[esoxlucius]

I'm not a great fan of bare tanks. But sometimes with bigger fish you simply can't ignore the fact that there is a real danger of them harming themselves on decor. Especially during fin level water changes which is when mine are most likely to have a funny turn.

Also, when you have bare or very minimal decor the fish have more open water to swim in and maintainance on the display tank can be easier too, so the benefits of having sparsely decorated tanks for bigger fish are many.

 

[MrsE88]

That’s a scary experience!

I’ve had a few bigger fish get scraped on decor so I tend to use smoother rocks, less wood, and only real plants. :/

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Yeah I can pretty well say that most of us have experienced something along these lines at some point or another. I know when I still had my flowerhorn (Jr.) he was very "accident" prone. He didn't have the best depth perception and would constantly scrape himself on decor and give himself scars. He was notorious for doing this when I would deal with the inside of the tank, he'd attack, hurt himself trying to bite me and rinse and repeat. Lol sometimes he was just a lil too mean for his own good but I still loved that goof ball even if all he wanted to do was fill me with teeth.

 

[Yuki-Rihwa]

You can keep decos in your tank but do not leave any space/holes that your fish can enter, for fish like to dig out like Cichild species better glue everything to the tank to avoid falling rock...etc. Also, for clean look you can plate the tank bottom instead of using sand or gravel (I hope you can understand what's I'm trying to say lol)

 

[BIG-G]

Glad you caught it in time.
I like to use rock to create a space for them to get behind, just so they can get out of sight.
It makes a fish feel safe without them being able to get stuck inside something.

 

[Monsterfish505]

+1 on natural decor like drift wood and big rocks

 

[Oscar Madison]

Thanx for all the well wishes. As of now he’s back to eating and being a tough nasty bastard. Everything is right with the world. Thanx again.