View Full Version : List of Dumb Mistakes.
gadget228
09-28-2010, 11:31 PM
Well I've got a new one to add to my list of dumb mistakes. Today while doing water changes on all my tanks I glanced over at my fry tank to check the water level as it was refilling and my betta somehow got sucked up in my gravel vac that I was using on his tank. By the time I noticed he had already started going down the hose body backward and was heading for the floor drain.
I managed to crimp the hose to keep him from going any farther but he was about 3 feet down the hose, the only way I could get him out was to cut the hose, fill it up with water behind him and then blow air though the hose to push him out.
He has a few scratches on his back and he is eating and I added some melafix to his tank to be on the safe side, he does keep swimming back and forth along the front of the tank and I swear that he is giving me nothing but dirty looks, can't say that I blame him.
LoveMyBlackMoor
09-28-2010, 11:34 PM
That is awful and FUNNY all at the same time!!! Now I don't feel so bad about some of the silly things I've done :ssmile: Hope your betta makes it!
~Col~
09-29-2010, 12:05 AM
Oh no! Maybe he thought it was a water slide? LOL!! Hope he's okay!
I've sucked up a few fry doing it that way, luckily they go straight through and I can scoop them back into the tank (I use buckets).
Gisela
09-29-2010, 12:36 AM
I sucked up Baby Swordtails before , but they only went so far as my bucket, so I toss them right back in. Can't believe that a Betta would make it through a hose, too.:hmm3grin2orange:
William
09-29-2010, 01:31 AM
I did the same with a rosy barb years ago. It was compressed to about half it original height by the incident. It did however survive and lived & bred for many years after that. He did however never go back to his full height, he remained low and bulky.
The possible differnce is that the rosy barbs begged for it as they always played with the siphon and try to swim into it and turn whenever it left the gravel for a second.
Trillianne
09-29-2010, 01:50 AM
You know.... I was lamenting the way leftover peas would sometimes get stuck on the "gravel filter" of my siphon hose.... until one of the mollies swam into the end.
Fish sure are silly things!
iheartbettas
09-30-2010, 04:44 AM
my bettas are totally fearless when it comes to hands, or moving objects, and apparently gravel siphons :D There's been many a time when I just wanted to SHOOOOOO my bettas and they're like "Uhhhh, where's my food buddy?" while my big hand is right in their face.
FishGirl-Seattle
09-30-2010, 05:12 AM
I had a Betta that went through my hose and into the bucket - he lived another year with no lasting effect, chances are yours will be fine!
Vaporeon
11-10-2010, 03:56 PM
Oh no!! Poor fishie lol...
My Betta ALWAYS gives me dirty looks... "grump grump grump" ... that's one of my favorite things about him! He's a grumpy-face!
Hope he's okay!
My last incident with sucking up my dojo didn't end well...:scry:
mermaidwannabe
11-10-2010, 10:07 PM
Years ago, when I had my 30-gallon hexigon tropical, I was using a diatom filter to clear up the water, and a platy got caught in the uptake tube. Couldn't understand why it wasn't sucking up any water. That poor platy was bent over in half and, unfortunately, DOA.
:ariel:
Sarkazmo
11-11-2010, 12:26 AM
About a year ago I was cleaning one of my Betta tanks and in an instant the Betta was 3-4 inches into the siphon hose and dead. You're lucky he survived. Ever since I've been paranoid about siphoning water from any of my tanks no matter the size of the occupants.
Sark
mermaidwannabe
11-11-2010, 01:55 AM
The problem with gravel vacuuming is that it kicks up so much debris it's difficult to see into the tank, especially along the bottom. I try to be careful when I do it, and I particularly watch for the smaller snails, which don't move out of the way very fast. The other fish high-tail it to the opposite side of the tank from where I'm working at any given time, so they stay pretty safe.
Plus, I'm busy watching the large syphon cylindar to see when the water starts coming up more clear so I can move on to another part of the gravel.
Sometimes, they just have to know enough to stay out of the way. We do our best, but accidents do happen.
-- mermaidwannabe
:ariel:
teddscau
11-17-2010, 02:51 AM
I almost sucked up one of my ghost shrimp! He got right in the syphon. Good thing ghost shrimp are surprising good swimmers or he would have ended up in the septic tank! The things I always have trouble with are my moss balls. One gets in the syphon each time.
By the way, I read mermaidwannabe's comment about how her tank always gets cloudy when she gravel vacuums. Does this happen to anyone else? I've never had taht before. I always do a good job of cleaning the gravel.
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