Filter Sucking Up Fish?

[jackiepowell]

Hi

I have recently joined the site, as I have bought quite a few fish over the last couple of weeks. Some of the fish purchased appear to go missing.

I have just been sat watching the tank, and a couple of fish appear to struggle around the filter tube which goes down the back of the tank.

I'm thinking the missing fish and a frog have been sucked up the filter tube.

Any advice on how I can stop loosing fish? Fluval filter is great, just sucks up small fish!

Thanks
Jackie

 

[Realtree]

Hi

I have recently joined the site, as I have bought quite a few fish over the last couple of weeks. Some of the fish purchased appear to go missing.

I have just been sat watching the tank, and a couple of fish appear to struggle around the filter tube which goes down the back of the tank.

I'm thinking the missing fish and a frog have been sucked up the filter tube.

Any advice on how I can stop loosing fish? Fluval filter is great, just sucks up small fish!

Thanks
Jackie

If this is the case TBH not sure unless they were very small
You can put a section of ladies tights over the filter tube held in place with a rubber band which will stop anything small being sucked up

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum JackiePowell.
I find that some filters can indeed suck up very small fish although I only usually worry about it with newborn fry. In those cases, I get a piece of filter sponge, the kind you buy at the fish shop to replace a sponge in your filter and cut a slit in the end. Then I slip that sponge up over the inlet tube of my filter to keep out all of the fry. It works great and becomes an extra bio-filter as it sits there in the filter flow path. It plugs up much slower than any tights or similar items.
This is a sample of what I use

This is one in place after about a month

You can see that even my tiny Heterandria formosa was safe near it in this picture

 

[Aaron89]

just close the valve a bit to reduce to force of which it pumps back the water which in turn will slow down the outlet.

its the black bit on the fluval between the pipes