Need help/ideas!!!!

[Wendie]

I just returned from vacation to find 5 of my black kuhli loaches living in the lap of luxury inside the AquaClear filter. This seems to be a normal event lately. I need some ideas of how they are doing this and how to stop it.

At this point I have put a double intake pipe on... the holes don't seem large enough for them to get thru though. I have also rigged up a screen running the full length of the outflow area which prevents them from getting into the filter body that way.

There is a very tiny area between the filter itself and the intake pipe which I have now blocked - hopefully. I just can't figure this out.

Ideas of how they are doing it or what to do are VERY welcome.

[Jayhawk]

I had a good sized (2.5" to 3") kuhli climb into my double intake tubes and die stuck on the second slitted area...not pretty.

I've since put a mesh bag over the intake holes and that has kept them out. I'm surprised the impeller didn't get your kuhlis!

Eric

[Wendie]

I don't think they are going up thru the intake tube. I don't know how they would fit thru the slits. This is the second time in a month that I've found 5 of them underneath the filter basket.

[Jayhawk]

They could be getting up elsewhere, especially if your water level was close enought to the output area.

In my case, I admit to being really surprised that my kuhli manged to get in through those slits...but he had. When I pulled out the body, his head simply looked to large to fit through the slits, but I guess where there was a will (and some dead MTSs probably smelling really tasty), there was a way.

Eric

[Desi]

I agree with you wendie that because you are finding them alive they must be getting in some way other than the intake. I would have thought they swam up stream but you said you put plastic canvas there. Is the plastic canvas secured tightly cause they may just be squeezing by it as that stuff is a bit flexible? Thats all I could think of is that they are going beside the canvas somewhere. Lets hope that with the hole you just filled they will stay out of that comfy filter.

[Wendie]

The first time this happened, one little guy had some missing skin on his back but nothing else. This time they were all okay.

I think it's pretty taunt and is only on the plastic area so that they can't get under it. There's a pretty strong flow coming out of the filter too.

There's so many hiding places in the tank that you don't miss them when they aren't swimming loops around the internal filter.

[Graeme Robson]

Don't ya Know?

Pangio's also live in high Vegetable waters.