Haveagojoe
Fish Crazy
After fish getting stuck in a Fluval U3 filter I decided to emauil hagen this is what I sent,
Has this problem been brought to your attention before,I installed a U3 filter into my tank approx 3 months ago after reading good reviews on various websites and in general am happy with it apart from one major problem,it kills fish!
The problem is fish like to swim behind it and they tend to get stuck in the cradle that sticks to the glass,to date I have lost one female guppy,two zebra botia loaches,one clown botia loach and a golden barb and every one of those fish I have had to remove from the cradle as they were trapped in it, I have correctly installed the filter and cradle going by the instructions on the leaflet provided.
I have had to modify the filter to try to stop fish going behind it so I now use a piece of foam in between the filter and cradle to try and stop them going behind it.
I am not the only one who has had this problem, after going to various fish keeping forums on the internet I havwe found that this is not uncommon.
It seems a shame that such a good product is blighted with this problem and I feel that I dont think I will be using it much longer unless you can come up with a solution to solve this,at the end of the day fish are not cheap and who wants to see them suffer like they must do trapped there.
I then got this response off the and I was not to happy as they completly deny any fault at all,
Response (Jonathan Wright) 04/11/2011 10:35 AM
First of all, may I say how sorry I am to learn that you seem to have had a problem with one of our products. We always welcome feedback from our customers on our products, and we appreciate you bringing to our attention the problems you have experienced.
We always follow extensive quality control procedures throughout our manufacturing process, and in checking a product before and after arrival in this country, and must stress that problems or complaints regarding our products are very rare indeed. However, we do realise how upsetting it must be to experience problems with our filters.
I was sorry to hear about the unfortunate loss of your fish, you feel it may have been the filter. These filters are very safe. We have sold many thousands of these filters and complaints in this nature are very rare indeed. A healthy fish will not get pulled into and trapped in a space it cannot escape from. Fish that are under stress or show signs of illness often dash around the tank and try to hide. Many fish seem to give up under these conditions show weakness and die when they find a hiding place, this is normally in a plant. Unfortunately, your poor fish ended up been drawn towards the filter.
Once again, I am so sorry to hear of the death of one of your fish, but I can assure you that the problem was not down to the filter.The deaths of your fish may have been caused by a water quality problem or a bacterial infection caused by the introduction of new fish and there are many other issues that can cause the deaths of the fish.
Best Regards,
Jonathan Wright
Aquatic Customer Service/Technical Advisor
Rolf C. Hagen (UK) Ltd.
California Drive
Whitwood Industrial Estate
Castleford, West Yorkshire
WF10 5QH
http
/www.hagen.com
So I emailed back this to them to date I have not had an answer but I will keep you posted, make of this what you want.
I think that you have completely miss interpreted my complaint, I did not at any point say that the fish had been drawn into the filter they got trapped in-between the cradle and the glass of the aquarium, I am an experienced fish keeper and I know when fish are ill or in distress and every one of the 5 not 1 as you stated were healthy fish,no other fish where introduced into the aquarium and I regularly test the water quality with one of your test kits also if you had taken note of the species of the fish
I have lost you would have noticed that 3 of them were of the Botia genus who, as you should know like to hide away in strange places in aquaria, one of those places in my case was behind the cradle of the filter. As I stated in my original complaint if you researched on the internet in various fish keeping forum you will find that this is not an uncommon complaint for this model. I really think that you have not taken my complaint seriously in fact I think the way and manner in which you have responded has
been quite blasé . This has made me think about whether or not to continue using your products any longer, I know that might mean much to a company like yourselves but its the only form of protest an individual has.
So lets see how we go from here.
Has this problem been brought to your attention before,I installed a U3 filter into my tank approx 3 months ago after reading good reviews on various websites and in general am happy with it apart from one major problem,it kills fish!
The problem is fish like to swim behind it and they tend to get stuck in the cradle that sticks to the glass,to date I have lost one female guppy,two zebra botia loaches,one clown botia loach and a golden barb and every one of those fish I have had to remove from the cradle as they were trapped in it, I have correctly installed the filter and cradle going by the instructions on the leaflet provided.
I have had to modify the filter to try to stop fish going behind it so I now use a piece of foam in between the filter and cradle to try and stop them going behind it.
I am not the only one who has had this problem, after going to various fish keeping forums on the internet I havwe found that this is not uncommon.
It seems a shame that such a good product is blighted with this problem and I feel that I dont think I will be using it much longer unless you can come up with a solution to solve this,at the end of the day fish are not cheap and who wants to see them suffer like they must do trapped there.
I then got this response off the and I was not to happy as they completly deny any fault at all,
Response (Jonathan Wright) 04/11/2011 10:35 AM
First of all, may I say how sorry I am to learn that you seem to have had a problem with one of our products. We always welcome feedback from our customers on our products, and we appreciate you bringing to our attention the problems you have experienced.
We always follow extensive quality control procedures throughout our manufacturing process, and in checking a product before and after arrival in this country, and must stress that problems or complaints regarding our products are very rare indeed. However, we do realise how upsetting it must be to experience problems with our filters.
I was sorry to hear about the unfortunate loss of your fish, you feel it may have been the filter. These filters are very safe. We have sold many thousands of these filters and complaints in this nature are very rare indeed. A healthy fish will not get pulled into and trapped in a space it cannot escape from. Fish that are under stress or show signs of illness often dash around the tank and try to hide. Many fish seem to give up under these conditions show weakness and die when they find a hiding place, this is normally in a plant. Unfortunately, your poor fish ended up been drawn towards the filter.
Once again, I am so sorry to hear of the death of one of your fish, but I can assure you that the problem was not down to the filter.The deaths of your fish may have been caused by a water quality problem or a bacterial infection caused by the introduction of new fish and there are many other issues that can cause the deaths of the fish.
Best Regards,
Jonathan Wright
Aquatic Customer Service/Technical Advisor
Rolf C. Hagen (UK) Ltd.
California Drive
Whitwood Industrial Estate
Castleford, West Yorkshire
WF10 5QH
http
/www.hagen.com So I emailed back this to them to date I have not had an answer but I will keep you posted, make of this what you want.
I think that you have completely miss interpreted my complaint, I did not at any point say that the fish had been drawn into the filter they got trapped in-between the cradle and the glass of the aquarium, I am an experienced fish keeper and I know when fish are ill or in distress and every one of the 5 not 1 as you stated were healthy fish,no other fish where introduced into the aquarium and I regularly test the water quality with one of your test kits also if you had taken note of the species of the fish
I have lost you would have noticed that 3 of them were of the Botia genus who, as you should know like to hide away in strange places in aquaria, one of those places in my case was behind the cradle of the filter. As I stated in my original complaint if you researched on the internet in various fish keeping forum you will find that this is not an uncommon complaint for this model. I really think that you have not taken my complaint seriously in fact I think the way and manner in which you have responded has
been quite blasé . This has made me think about whether or not to continue using your products any longer, I know that might mean much to a company like yourselves but its the only form of protest an individual has.
So lets see how we go from here.
