Help! Tiny Baby Shrimp In External Filter......

[Ellieabbott4]

so tonight i was just looking in my eheim 2213 external filter to see how it was doing and if it needed cleaning......then all of a sudden i saw something moving in there! so i had an even closer look and there are loads of tiny and some bigger babies (cherry shrimp) that are growing in my filter!
 
1. how am i going to be able to get them out of there safely?
 
2. what can i put over the tube that sucks up the water to stop it happening again? (i already have a guard on it but the gaps are obviously big enough to let them go into the cannister) Would an old pair of tights be ok? or will it stop the flow of the filter?
 
any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated
 
i need to get this problem sorted before my blue tiger shrimp start to breed (dont what to risk any of them getting sucked up)

 

[stanleo]

They sell sponges that can be placed over the intake tube. I have also heard of putting pantyhose over the intake tube. That way water will go through but not babies. I use a sponge I got at the LFS, works great. Plus it collects microbes that the babies love to eat.

As for getting them out you could try pouring the water through a fish net? Thats just a guess though I have never tried it.

 

[DyArianna]

When I have fry in my external filter I use a turkey baster to suck them out. I agree with the suggestions of sponge or nylon over the intake though. Just make sure it is new and rinse it a feew times. If you dump the filter you might not get them all. Hope you get a good number out!

 

[bodge99]

Hello,
 
I use Eheim prefilters on all of my external (non Eheim) filters. See  http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EHEIM-EXTERNAL-CANISTER-FISH-TANK-PRE-FILTER-4004320-EASYCLICK-INTAKE-TRAPS-DIRT-/200654961483?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item2eb7f7bb4b
 
You can (carefully) remove the base from the lower part of one filter and so allow a 4 or more section prefilter if so required...
 
These fit 12 or 16 mm OD rigid pipes.
 
Bodge99

 

[Ellieabbott4]

Thanks for the help guys. I managed to get most of the babies out of the filter and have connected it all together and put a some tights on the intake pipe for now. I've ordered a eheim prefilter so that will do the job properly to stop anymore getting sucked up

 

[stanleo]

How did you get the babies out?

 

[Ellieabbott4]

It took a very long time to get them all out. But to start with I let the water empty out of the canister through my little net therefore any babies that came out that way were caught in the net. Then once the majority of the water and come out I dipped the net into a tub and loads of babies fell out the net. Then it left about an inch of water in the eheim canister so I tipped this water into another tub and used a small pipette so suck the remaining ones out of the gunk that was left in the filter. I managed to get most of them out, only a few went down the plug hole.....I thought it was going to be mission impossible but it wasn't to bad once I got going, it just took a lot of patience