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View Full Version : My Mistake, But A Happy Ending



hexed
12-04-2005, 03:26 PM
I just wanted to share my horror story with you and the lesson I learned.
It was about 9:30 at night and I started to clean my tanks. I did the wipping down and let the tank be for a half hour for everything to settle the started vacuuming out the crap. I said to myself that I will do a very large water change tonight. After vacuuming the bottom totally clean I left the hose in the tank to syphon out most of the water. I do not have a python because my faucets do not have threading to attach a python. I came up with a really great idea. I purchased a power head that has a prefilter attachment and I can attach my hose to it. The hose is half inch in diameter. Well it was still going kinda slow so I came up with an idea. I used some filter pipe pieces and made a funnel shaped attachment that I attached to the powerhead where the prefilter would attach and got a better suction. This is where everything went wrong :(
I heard a loud bang upstairs so I ran upstairs to see what it was. My roommates mother lives up there and I thought she fell because she is 75 years old. Well she did not fall down which was a good thing, turns out she has a book rack that hangs on the back of her door and she was trying to "move it over" and it fell off the door. Well I forgot about the tank while I was helping her. When I came back downstairs one of my discus juvis was stuck to the hose. I unplugged the powerhead and he was missing his eye! :(
He just floated away and I started swearing at myself, thinking I killed him. He started to move after a few minutes. I really thought he was going to die. I put him in my 10 gallon and added salt ( not alot thou because loosing an eye had to hurt and I did not know if the salt would add more pain) and did the water changes and then added clout to the tank. He did bounce back and is now back in the 55 gallon tank. He is back to eating like crazy and chasing the other discus but he only has one eye. The other eye is just an empty socket. I know a breeder would have culled him but I just could not do it because it was my fault. He is now my reminder that if something happens shut off what you are doing first because discus are like kids, they will get into trouble as soon as you turn your back. I just wanted to share this lesson with everyone.
Marie, I did name him --- POPEYE!
Frank

here's a pic of the good side:

hexed
12-04-2005, 03:27 PM
The bad side :(

justafishguy
12-04-2005, 07:34 PM
That sounds like a tramatic experience, but glad the guy survived. He doesnt look so bad...When I have had problems with powerheads and fish colliding, they usually come out completely deformed and cant swim to tell the story.

Willie
12-04-2005, 07:49 PM
Don't feel bad. This sort of thing happens often.

I run powerheads on top of stacked hydro sponges. During water changes, I disassemble the whole thing to clean sponges. As the tank fills, I run the powerhead to get rid of the bubbles before reattaching the filter. About half the time, a cory gets stuck in there and dies.

The difference between an advanced hobbyist and a beginner is the number of fish we've killed.

Willie

goheel
12-04-2005, 08:29 PM
that's a nice looking pigeon blood.

hexed
12-04-2005, 08:45 PM
Thanks everyone. Yes he is a nice looker. He's my homebreed discus first try LOL!
I kept 3 from the batch for myself :)