Jay Huska Posted January 5, 2010 Report Share Posted January 5, 2010 I have an aquaterra background in my 125 gallon thank, the tank is basically new since my four year old daughter decided to give my Arrowana 2 liters of Pepsi because "He was thirsty". Everything is up, cycled, and great except for one little problem. The background along the bottom had a 1/2 inch bow in it leaving it high in the center, no biggy, just put in a cedar shim to tighten everything up while I was putting in one heck of a bead of silicone. Everything set up nice, got the sand in, rocks yada yada. But appearently forgot to fill the void left by the shim with sillicone. Some time later I was sitting back looking at the 8 little cichlids swimming around, chasing each other, you know fish stuff, when it dawned on me that the tank sure looked vacant. So I proceeded to counting them..."1,2,3,4,5,6.....WTF? OK start again...1.2.3.4.5.6! Two of them are missing!!!" My brain went into action mode! " Where could they have gone? The lids are closed, the kids haven't been here all day, and the cat is far too stupid to mastermind a coup like this!" After doing my best to search behind the background, wich was almost impossible because the tank is about 2 inches from the wall, and the background is anywhere from almost flush with the back of the tank to about 3 inches inside the tank. I found them! Back there chillin' Turns out the water pressure in the front of the background was higher than the backside, this caused the substrait to get sucked in behind the background, exposing the escape route for my little friends. So the problem is how do I get 'em out? I can't get a net back there. I did try a lazer pointer to try and show them the way out, but it is far too restricted a space to pull that off. I also pulled off the overflow screen on the background, and pulled the fx5 output out of it's hole so there are now 3 ways to get out. Sometimes there is one back there, sometimes 3 and a catfish. I'm out of ideas, and I really don't want to plug up the holes and call it a day, then deal with body recovery later. So any Ideas? I've also included a pic of the setup so you can see kinda what I am talking about. Thanks for any help in advance! Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted January 5, 2010 Report Share Posted January 5, 2010 Can you get a hose big enough to suck them up behind the background? If so, then you're home free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catshanon Posted January 5, 2010 Report Share Posted January 5, 2010 If I have understood you correctly, the hole is between the background and the substrate, and they escaped by digging under the background. Why don't you remove the 6 fishes and then make the hole bigger (by removing the substrate) to entice the escapees to come back into the fore front ? Raj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Huska Posted January 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2010 Wouldn't you know it, I take off to work, and a few days later my wife calls to say the problem is solved, she kept an eye on things, the fish were coming and going on their own, she did count after count, finally they were all there! She filled the hole with a piece of filter sponge, burried it and voila. fixed, and no body count! :thumbs: :smokey: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.