The Filter Killed George!

[saz_jam]

I came home this evening, went to feed George and found him wedged behind the filter with his fins pulled through into it! He had no chance, I'm completely devastated! He was a gorgeous, lovely fish! I been crying my eyes out, just a horrible thought of him struggling behind there! Felt like ripping the filter out and smashing it on the floor!

There is no way I am keeping it in there after this, can anyone recommend a Betta friendly one? It is for a Rena Aqua Light 30 (30 litre), the current filter is the Rena Filstar that came with it.

RIP my beautiful George

 

[Honeythorn]

A rena sucked him in? I have one though admittedly with a Plakat so his fins are highly unlikely to get caught.

I should switch to a sponge filter or ziptie a thin stocking or some fine mesh around the intake grills on the Rena before keeping another veiltail or other long finned variety of betta.

It's a pity indeed, he was a beautiful fish going by your avatar.

 

[Truck]

are you sure he didn't die first? and then was sucked into the filter?

 

[rebrn]

I am so sorry to hear about your Betta. I am planning to keep one myself when cycling is finished, and that is one of my biggest fears. I know a lot of people here recommend a sponge filter for Betta tanks, but it might not be enough for your tank (not overly familiar with the sponge filters). I have an Aqua-clear 20 on my 5 gallon tank (roughly 20L), it is adjustable for the output flow 33gph-100gph, when set on low it does not create much current so it should be good that way. Most people here recommend covering the intake valve with some filter sponge to help protect the Betta, however, I had trouble getting the filter sponge to stay on, so someone recommend using a new pair of pantyhose, just cut the foot off and use the foot part to cover the intake valve. You may have to use an elastic band (food grade of course) or a plastic zip tie would probably work too, maybe even some fishing line, or flavour/dye free dental floss would probably work too, to get it to stay. Just cover the intake valve with something, the only thing is that you will need to pull it out more frequently to clean it, as the larger debris will get stuck on the outside of the sponge/pantyhose and possibly clog up the intake. I don't have a fish in my tank yet, but I have covered the intake with panty hose, I still take it out once a week and clean it off, right now with no fish it doesn't have anything really stuck on it, but with fish in there the larger debris definitely won't be able to get sucked up into the filter, so more cleaning will definitely be required. People with more experience may have a better way of doing this, and hopefully they will be along to add there advise. But I wouldn't necessarily blame your filter (as tempting as it is) because all filters have that problem with the intake valve, I think covering it will be your best bet. Like I said I used the Panty hose method, mainly because it doesn't look as obvious and I find it easier to clean, just rinse off, where as the sponge might be a little harder to clean with all the larger holes for debris to get stuck.

Again I am so sorry for your loss, best of luck with your new Betta.

 

[saz_jam]

Thinking about ittruckasauras123, he may have got wedged behind the filter first then his fins got sucked in but he definitely didn't die first because he was behind the filter with half his body out the other side. As if he got stuck and couldn't quite get out the other side because his head and half his body were curled around the right of it (as if he was going to come out the other side and swim around the front. The filter is the same as the one in the picture below with the sponge in the bottom compartment, the first one on the left. He was stuck behind at the top, behind where the water comes back out:

It doesn't go together very securely, flimsy plastic & the way it clips in isn't very secure so I can see how his fins got sucked throught the joins!

 

[betta fish]

I am very sorry to hear this too, how long was he in the tank with this particular filter? I once had a short fined female die behind a filter after getting wedged behind it, not the filters fault, bettas are curious fish and often wedge themselves between things, unable to free herself she drowned unable to reach the surface for air

 

[saz_jam]

He has been in there with the filter for about 2.5 months. Thanks for all your comments, they are much appreciated. I am still going to get another filter, and I will definitely cover it in some sort of mesh/stocking!

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Hi,
I have bettas and guppies and cover the intakes on all my tanks to be on the safe side.

For my 10-gallon w/single betta, I have a Tetra Whisper PF and have the intake covered with foam and then I wrapped a hair tie around it to keep it secured. Then I put foam on the outtake part to slow down the water flow. I have the same filter for my 5-gallon and found the flow rate too fast for my guppies so again I wrapped the intake with foam and then slowed down the current with additional foam on the out take. I really like that filter and it's very inexpensive at $16.99.

One of the SLOWEST moving filters I could find is the Red Sea Nano Filter (also around $16) and it's GPH can be slowed to 16. With that STILL the current was strong, so I also have foam around intake/outtake. That filter is a bit noisy.

Sorry about your betta.

Oh, and just to note, if you cover the intake with mesh, don't use a white one - I put a net around my intake and it turned green and brown and was discusting. Black foam works perfectly.

 

[rebrn]

Good point on the white, I used lighter coloured (nude I think was the colour) panty hose and had the same thing, even with no fish in the tank. I now use eithor black or a dark taupe colour, no further problems.

 

[Zenandra]

I am so sorry for the loss of your boy, he was gorgeous! I almost never use a filter with my bettas, they do great with every other day 50% water changes, and I don't have to worry about a filter stressing them out, especially the big halfmoon males with the ridiculously huge tails!

RIP George, swim and play hard at the rainbow bridge, you will be missed!

 

[Honeythorn]

Sponge filters don't stress bettas since they have virtually no current at all, and provide a bacterial colony to process the fishes waste which would save you the job of doing a 50% water change every other day ( and reduce to once or twice a week) which is known to also stress fish.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

I am so sorry for the loss of your boy, he was gorgeous! I almost never use a filter with my bettas, they do great with every other day 50% water changes, and I don't have to worry about a filter stressing them out, especially the big halfmoon males with the ridiculously huge tails!

RIP George, swim and play hard at the rainbow bridge, you will be missed!

Are you testing ammonia? How big are your bettas' homes? When I had my female betta in her 2-gallon bowl, she was given 100% water changes every third day b/c the ammonia built up. I just put her into a 3-gallon eclipse and am setting her up with a biowheel with a modified out take and that will have NO current. I had planned to keep her in the bowl, but ended up moving other fish around and had the empty eclipse to use.

Basically - You don't have to have a filter, you just have to check the ammonia levels to be sure your 50% changes are reducing the ammonia back to zero.

 

[Honeythorn]

Right, because bettas are somehow magically immune to their own waste . A filter does the whole job for you and keeps things stable far better .