Whilst doing my weekly water change I always take the background off and drop the hood with light down the back of the tank, so I can still see what I'm doing in the tank. When my 9 year old son said "there's a platy fry stuck." Sure enough there was. 
As the built in filter corners are not squared, they leave a tiny little space the shape of a triangle between the tank walls and the filter. This fry had either grown in the space or somehow managed to end up there. I think he grew in there as I can't think how he could get in. There was just enough space for him to turn around so he could only swim up or down, he's maybe 1cm long. 
Panic sets in though no swearing as my son was still around. Emptied more water out the tank, then went at the glue on the filter with a long, thin screw driver- no good, then a 8" bread knife- excellent. With very careful sawing so as not to skewer little guy fry in the corner, I worked through enough of the glue to prise the filter gently away from the walls and create a gap for him to swim through.
He is now swimming with the rest of the crew although only up and down in the corner between the filter and the tank wall. He only does vertically. Hopefully after a while he will swim horizontally. I just hope he doesn't get eaten by the other fish after all that trouble. I was going to call him Spartacus; a freed slave. My husband sugested Nelson as in Mandela, freed at last after many years of jail. Or how about Patrick as in McGoohan "The Prisoner". Let me know what you think or have any other good suggestions.
I do have pictures but I have no idea how to get them on this forum. Not technically minded and it was asking me for my URL address
Not a scooby (as in doo - clue). Maybe I'll take the entire filter cabinet out and put an Eheim in.
Any other stories of the fight against forced incarceration, the struggle for life and the will to live. Fight on my brothers and sisters of the fishy fraternity.!!! Sorry, got a wee bit carried away.
As the built in filter corners are not squared, they leave a tiny little space the shape of a triangle between the tank walls and the filter. This fry had either grown in the space or somehow managed to end up there. I think he grew in there as I can't think how he could get in. There was just enough space for him to turn around so he could only swim up or down, he's maybe 1cm long. Panic sets in though no swearing as my son was still around. Emptied more water out the tank, then went at the glue on the filter with a long, thin screw driver- no good, then a 8" bread knife- excellent. With very careful sawing so as not to skewer little guy fry in the corner, I worked through enough of the glue to prise the filter gently away from the walls and create a gap for him to swim through.
He is now swimming with the rest of the crew although only up and down in the corner between the filter and the tank wall. He only does vertically. Hopefully after a while he will swim horizontally. I just hope he doesn't get eaten by the other fish after all that trouble. I was going to call him Spartacus; a freed slave. My husband sugested Nelson as in Mandela, freed at last after many years of jail. Or how about Patrick as in McGoohan "The Prisoner". Let me know what you think or have any other good suggestions.
I do have pictures but I have no idea how to get them on this forum. Not technically minded and it was asking me for my URL address
Not a scooby (as in doo - clue). Maybe I'll take the entire filter cabinet out and put an Eheim in.Any other stories of the fight against forced incarceration, the struggle for life and the will to live. Fight on my brothers and sisters of the fishy fraternity.!!! Sorry, got a wee bit carried away.
