Weird, and scary

[Larissa]

I've had a seemingly healthy angelfish get stuck to my filter intake before. My pleco had knocked the strainer off of the intake and I found my angelfish's face stuck in the intake. I pushed him off and replaced the strainer (also got rid of the pleco). He was fine. He is a huge, healthy angelfish now. Was he unhealthy when this happened? I don't think so. He was a lot smaller (dime-sized) than he is now.

 

[gagaliya]

i plan to cut up a pennplax fish net and wrap it around the intake of my power filters. I choose fish net over others because their holes are large enough for wastes to still get sucked in (where as spongers etc will be covered with crap in short time).

another stupid question, but what should i use to tie the net around the power filter? i know rubberband is not it. Are regular sewing strings ok? what does everyone use

 

[jennypenny]

Cooking twine could work. But thread might could work the biggest worry would be from strange dies or unnatural materials.

PS: if a fish is getting stuck in a flitter it is very likely that it was sick or weakened in some other way. However, it’s great to try and prevent a fish tragedy even if everyone is healthy.

 

[nursie]

Get a porous peice of foam and cut slits down into it and slide it over your intake. I did that with mine to keep plant debris from clogging the intake. Should help the fishie thing.
I would agree with Roan that the great majority of the fish that get sucked onto the water intake have some kind of health issues, I've never seen it happen. On the other hand..there is that small chance someone just swam too close...

 

[echoofformless]

I've had, and heard of perfectly healthy fish getting sucked into filters. It's all about the type and size of the fish.

For that very reason I try to avoid strong power filters anywhere that a betta will be dwelling. The same should go for very small fish like neons.

I find it rather outlandish to insist that only a sick fish will get sucked into a filter. There are just far too many variables in this world to make such rigid statements.

Experience will always teach you otherwise if you should ever dare to assume anything is absolute.

 

[King Chubs]

There was a piece of fake plant stuck to it, and he kept getting stuck to the filter. Once I removed the fake plant, it stopped. He must have been going after the plant, if that makes sense.