Sponge filter crushed guppy

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Lexiih36

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I currently have a 20 gallon. It's stocked with 9 harlequin rasboras (they've been there for a little over month), a male Betta (2 weeks), and as of this morning, 2 female guppies (not even a full 24 hours). The male guppy who accompanied the females was tragically crushed under the brand new sponge filter I bought along with the guppies.

I do currently have an aquaclear HOB filter and a prefilter sponge (I heard that no matter what, female guppies are prolly pregnant). I don't want to worry about filtration, especially since I plan to have more aquatic animals to the tank (like shrimp and some more fish), but I would not like the tragedy of more fish being crushed under the weight of the sponge filter. Should I just remove it and use it in a seperate tank ( not that I current own one, but I would like to upgrade to a 30 or 40 gallon and perhaps use the 20 as a quarantine/fry tank eventually) or is there another way to prevent this?

The sponge filter is technically for a 40 gallon btw. I really wanted to make sure filtration was fine lol. Thank you.
 
Can you post some pictures of the filter that killed the fish?

The fish might have died and ended up under the filter after it died.

Male Betta splendens (Siamese fighting fish) will sometimes kill guppies due to their brightly coloured tails. They see the guppy as another male Betta and consider it an intruder in its territory. The guppy gets killed. Monitor them and if there is any aggression, separate them immediately.
 
Can you post some pictures of the filter that killed the fish?

The fish might have died and ended up under the filter after it died.

Male Betta splendens (Siamese fighting fish) will sometimes kill guppies due to their brightly coloured tails. They see the guppy as another male Betta and consider it an intruder in its territory. The guppy gets killed. Monitor them and if there is any aggression, separate them immediately.
Yeah that makes more sense. They weren't aggressive at first, but I did check a stocking calculator which explained the Betta problem. That's probably what happened, though I didn't see evidence of a fight on the fish.
 

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The aragonite substrate is still a work in progress. I'm only adding a little bit every week since it was the only substrate added after I already had fish in it. I usually add it after a water change. The tank itself is 2.5 months old. I don't believe I explained it, but essentially I put unboiled driftwood in the tank while cycling thinking all the tannins would come out before I added the fish, and that was true to an extent, but it also resulted in a pH crash, so for a variety of reasons, I decided to add aragonite substrate as well. I actually have 3 different types of substrate.
 
That style of sponge filter will not kill fish unless you drop it on the fish, and that is unlikely to happen. I would say the guppy either died and got drawn down to the filter by the currents. Or it was really unwell and got sucked down to the filter and couldn't swim away.
 
Agree with @Colin_T. It is near impossible for that filter to kill a fish.

Those style or sponge filters are usually used for shrimp or fry tanks, because they are nice and gentle. :)
 

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