xoedusk
Fishaholic
Bought 3 kuhli loaches on Saturday evening. Their tank is 10 gallons, sandy substrate, heated, and filtered with an AquaClear 20. Any familiar with this type of filter will really appreciate this story. If you're not, you should still like it.
Woke up Sunday morning to only find 2 loaches swimming around. Fine. The third is just hiding or burrowing in the sand. Looked under everything. Gently sifted the sand with the net. Nothing. Thought he's just really good at hiding, as I have read. Took the top off of our AquaClear, lifted the filter tray, lifted the biomax. Nothing.
Got really worried late Sunday afternoon. Still only two to be seen. Took everything out. Slate, ornaments, fake plant, the works. No where. Sifted the sand with my finger tips very gently, much to the dislike of the other two kuhlis. Nothing.
Freaking out. Lifted up the filter tray completely. The filter tray houses three different filters vertically. There he was... at the bottom! Underneath the filter tray. How he got there, I have no idea!!!! If he swam up the intake, he would have been shredded by the spinning plastic blades. If he tried to go up the outlet, he some how must have squeezed past all three filters, which anyone who owns an AquaClear, are very, very, very snug. Here is a picture of what it looks like with the top lid off:
I know it looks like there's room between the biomax and the filter walls, but just below the biomax are two sponge filters, which cover the entire width of the tray. No way he could fit in here.
But there he was nonetheless.
My first reaction was. Whew!! Alive! Sweet! My second reaction was, "Holy Crap!!! he's two inches from a spinning blade of death!! Cut the power as fast as possible! Whew. At this point I took a picture:
You can see the loach in the tray-receiver thing on the right. The intake tube is on the left, which sits directly above the spinning blade of death.
Now to fish him out. Kuhli's have got to be the hardest fish to net out, especially when your net is way to big to fit in the small tray-receiver. Freaking out. How do I get him out!?!? Then a brilliant idea!! Pour him out! Yeah, seems obvious to you, but wasn't to me at the time.
So I lift the filter straight up. BAD IDEA!! There was still water in the intake tube. When I lifted it up, it created a siphoning effect, just like when you gravel vac. The water left the filter completely, emptying into the tank. Freaking out again. What happened??? No water in the filter! What if he's in there drying up?
Set the filter back down and poured water back in the filter. Looked ALL around for him. NOTHING!! No where to be seen again!!! Not in the filter, not in the tank. Freaking out!!! Not on the floor (whew!). Took a good 5 minutes to realize where he was: when the siphon happened, he sucked up throw the (non-rotating) blades, except that his head tried on one side of the blade, and his tail tried to go on the other!!! Imagine! This loach was in a U-shape position, his head poking above the blade, and his tail doing the same, but on opposite sides of the blade.
He was stuck here. Couldn't get himself out. I quickly tried to disassemble the filter to free him. I picked the blade straight up with my fingers, then it slipped out of my hands. OUCH! POOR KUHLI! Landed right on top of him. He's still stuck. Freaking out! Ran to get a pair of pliers to get a better grip of the blades. That worked. He was free and floating in the filter once again.
Carefully tried the genious plan again. Poured him out into the tank. The area wasn't well lit because I'm blocking the ceiling light and the hood/light was off. Didn't see him empty into the tank. Crap!! Where'd he go? Took me a good 10 seconds to finally see all 3 kuhlis in the tank! Counted about 5 times. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, ..... 3. Etc.
That was his ordeal!! He is doing surprisingly well 8 hours later. Swimming, eating. No visible scratches of bleeding or anything! But I am still worried for his well-being. Hopefully no internal injuries.
I was thinking of naming him AC (for the filter), but that doesn't fit very well. Any suggetions?
Woke up Sunday morning to only find 2 loaches swimming around. Fine. The third is just hiding or burrowing in the sand. Looked under everything. Gently sifted the sand with the net. Nothing. Thought he's just really good at hiding, as I have read. Took the top off of our AquaClear, lifted the filter tray, lifted the biomax. Nothing.
Got really worried late Sunday afternoon. Still only two to be seen. Took everything out. Slate, ornaments, fake plant, the works. No where. Sifted the sand with my finger tips very gently, much to the dislike of the other two kuhlis. Nothing.
Freaking out. Lifted up the filter tray completely. The filter tray houses three different filters vertically. There he was... at the bottom! Underneath the filter tray. How he got there, I have no idea!!!! If he swam up the intake, he would have been shredded by the spinning plastic blades. If he tried to go up the outlet, he some how must have squeezed past all three filters, which anyone who owns an AquaClear, are very, very, very snug. Here is a picture of what it looks like with the top lid off:
I know it looks like there's room between the biomax and the filter walls, but just below the biomax are two sponge filters, which cover the entire width of the tray. No way he could fit in here.
But there he was nonetheless.
My first reaction was. Whew!! Alive! Sweet! My second reaction was, "Holy Crap!!! he's two inches from a spinning blade of death!! Cut the power as fast as possible! Whew. At this point I took a picture:
You can see the loach in the tray-receiver thing on the right. The intake tube is on the left, which sits directly above the spinning blade of death.
Now to fish him out. Kuhli's have got to be the hardest fish to net out, especially when your net is way to big to fit in the small tray-receiver. Freaking out. How do I get him out!?!? Then a brilliant idea!! Pour him out! Yeah, seems obvious to you, but wasn't to me at the time.
So I lift the filter straight up. BAD IDEA!! There was still water in the intake tube. When I lifted it up, it created a siphoning effect, just like when you gravel vac. The water left the filter completely, emptying into the tank. Freaking out again. What happened??? No water in the filter! What if he's in there drying up?
Set the filter back down and poured water back in the filter. Looked ALL around for him. NOTHING!! No where to be seen again!!! Not in the filter, not in the tank. Freaking out!!! Not on the floor (whew!). Took a good 5 minutes to realize where he was: when the siphon happened, he sucked up throw the (non-rotating) blades, except that his head tried on one side of the blade, and his tail tried to go on the other!!! Imagine! This loach was in a U-shape position, his head poking above the blade, and his tail doing the same, but on opposite sides of the blade.
He was stuck here. Couldn't get himself out. I quickly tried to disassemble the filter to free him. I picked the blade straight up with my fingers, then it slipped out of my hands. OUCH! POOR KUHLI! Landed right on top of him. He's still stuck. Freaking out! Ran to get a pair of pliers to get a better grip of the blades. That worked. He was free and floating in the filter once again.
Carefully tried the genious plan again. Poured him out into the tank. The area wasn't well lit because I'm blocking the ceiling light and the hood/light was off. Didn't see him empty into the tank. Crap!! Where'd he go? Took me a good 10 seconds to finally see all 3 kuhlis in the tank! Counted about 5 times. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, ..... 3. Etc.
That was his ordeal!! He is doing surprisingly well 8 hours later. Swimming, eating. No visible scratches of bleeding or anything! But I am still worried for his well-being. Hopefully no internal injuries.
I was thinking of naming him AC (for the filter), but that doesn't fit very well. Any suggetions?
That's hilarious! I bought 3 Black Kuhlies online from liveaquaria and they have a 14 day guarantee if your fish dies, but you have to follow their acclimatization guide. You first let them sit in the sealed bag for 15 minutes, then open the bag and fold the edges over so it floats. After that, you pour a half a cup of tank water in the bag and repeat every four minutes until the bag is full, after which point you dump half the bag water and do the 4 minute thing again, and finally net the fish and put it in the tank. Well, my Kuhlies didn't like that idea too much. The bag was almost full enough to dump half the water, and they were just swimmin' in the bottom, then I went to get a bucket and when I came back, all 3 Kuhlies were swimming around in the tank! There was still about an inch of space before the top of the bag. I was really surprised. They didn't show any sympoms, and now, about 4 days later, they're doing fine. 
