Losing fish to vortechs :(

[dynamite]

Today I lost my 4Th fish (Tailspot Blenny) to one of my MP40 Vortechs.
3 days ago I saved my healthy Yellow Tang from getting stuck while feeding :sad: What do you guys do to keep your fish away from getting stuck? :neutral:

[Sebae again]

Turn it down.

[Stumped]

Turn it down + add the foam guard.

[abcha0s]

I run two MP60s. I have lots of small fish. I have never had this problem.

I know that doesn't answer your question, but I don't think this is a common occurrence? it would seem that your fish are weak or stressed before getting sucked in. A healthy fish should be able to sense the increasing current and will stay away.

Maybe you have them in a bad position in the tank? Can you reposition them?

How big is your tank? Are they oversized?

[dreef]

Never ever have had a problem,and i have 2 MP40's in a 100 gallons.My hawkfish sits on them everyday chillaxing,and a blue throat that does laps around one.Oh...i have never used the foam,never felt the need too.

[mike31154]

Yah, unfortunate, but like other posters, I have yet to lose a fish to either of my MP40s in well over two years of operation. I run them without foam guard in EcoSmart Tidal Swell Mode up to almost 90%. So not at 90% constantly, but at various points throughout the day, one or both will be running at that speed for some time. My autofeeder is positioned at one end of the tank near an MP40 and the fish hang out there in anticipation of feeding time. Yellow Tang gets quite close to VorTech with his tail at times and Sngapore Angel zips fairly close to it on its way to the feeding trough. Even my female Maroon Clown ventures in that direction come feeding time. Mind you, these are all good sized fish, but my Lawnmower Blenny used to graze the pump cage and sit on top on occasion as well without getting harmed. For some reason he stopped eating and starved, but certainly not a VorTech related issue.

Interested in hearing more on your issue though. What were the other losses & circumstances? Perhaps they were chased into the powerhead by aggressive fish in your system?

[fishytime]

would surprise me very much if a healthy yellow tang got stuck on a vortech......my yellow routinely swims head on into my MP40 (100%) to pick at the algae that grows on it......I agree with Brad......sounds like some underlying issue there......what are your parameters?

[dynamite]

Thanks everyone for the replies.
I really don't know what's going on but I know I'm not the only one cuz yesterday I googled "killer vortechs" LOL and found some threads.

All of my fish are healthy and fat (the yellow tang is gaining weight cuz I bought him somehow skinny) and I'ts been almost 3 years since I got my tank and never had a fish get sick or die because of unknown reasons.

My vortechs had kill so far 1 tailspot Blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp and 1 baby clownfish and 3 days ago tried to kill my yellow tang while I was feeding.. I don't know if he was gonna be able to get away from it but in less than a second I helped him out.

My water parameters are somehow "fine" I guess.. I test my water every week cuz I'm trying to lower my nitrates (ppm20-25) Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and phosphates (0.03 or 0.3 with hanna)
So I have no idea of what's going on.. yesterday I did a water change (10-15% every week) and my Tailspot blenny went to hide.. Next thing I see when I came back from classes was him stucked in the grills on my mp40 vortech :(

[cwatkins]

This sounds odd. I don't know how a healthy fish could get sucked into a vortech. Is it too low in the tank?

I have fish actually reach into the propeller to eat the algae (albeit only when its in feed mode and going slow).

Maybe it's time to use the foam guards then. Note you'll need to increase the speed as the foam slows down water movement.

[dynamite]

This sounds odd. I don't know how a healthy fish could get sucked into a vortech. Is it too low in the tank?

I have fish actually reach into the propeller to eat the algae (albeit only when its in feed mode and going slow).

Maybe it's time to use the foam guards then. Note you'll need to increase the speed as the foam slows down water movement.


I know :confused: I'm just gonna post a picture of my tank to see if they're to low or what... I think this is weird and I don't feel like using those foam guards.
There's no agression in my tank. Sometimes I see some agression between my female false perc and male black clown and some mouth openings lol from my TailSpot Blenny (RIP :cry:) to my Cherub angel... The Yellow Tang are Cherub angel are excellent citizens. They all school together lol and it's fun to watch :)

[dynamite]

This is how I have my Vortechs... I'm sorry for the film on the glass but I ordered a new blade, salt, the Prodibio Bioclean kit and I was suppose to receive everything on tuesday but Canada Post got lockout...:twised: So yeahhh I'm mad.
The pictures were taken with my iphone :neutral:

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g74/mauro_90/IMG_1880.jpg

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g74/mauro_90/IMG_1879.jpg

[asylumdown]

I've got a tail spot blenny in a 20 gallon with an mp10 and the little burrow he's claimed as his is about 4 inches from the bottom of the pump. He never seems to even struggle against the pull of the pump.

I too have a hard time getting my head around a healthy tang not being able to cope with one of these pumps, but then again freak accidents are always hard to imagine until they happen.

[regent2009]

I have the mp 40 ESW (60-70%) in my 72 bowfront for 2 months now. no foam mesh. no fish lost.

[mike31154]

From the photo your pumps certainly appear to be positioned lower than I have mine. Looks like close to 12 inches down from the top? I just measured mine and the top of the dry side motor is about 4 and a half inches from the rim of the tank on the right side and the left side one is about 5 inches below the rim. Still think healthy fish of a reasonable size and cognizant of being in the vicinity of a VorTech should not easily get trapped. Cleaner shrimp, blenny & baby clown are smaller critters and perhaps just bad luck that they got too close at the wrong time. Might not be a bad idea to raise your VorTechs just a bit more. Aside from getting them a bit farther away from the livestock, it will improve surface agitation and as a consequence, better gas exchange/oxygenation. Downside to the increased surface agitation (on my system anyhow) is that it really messes up my once highly polished T5 & MH reflectors, can't get 'em clean any more, grrr... Will be switching to LEDs some day anyhow, no more reflectors.

[StirCrazy]

as everyone has said, a yellow tang should not get stuck unless he was not good to start with or extreamly small.

the positioning shouldn't matter at all as I had 6 of thoes types in my tank when it was running, I am a big proponant that your flow should be spread over as much of the tank as possible as long as your sand bed will alow it. I had two right on the bottom, two in the middle and two towards the top as I had a bare bottom.

look for a healthy yellow that is at least 3" in dia. and you shouldn't have problems

Steve

[dynamite]

Thanks again for all your replies... Well I have BAD news...
Just when things couldn't get WORSE... Not receiving anything of what I bought online for my tank or the present I bought my dad for Father's Day.. because of the Canada Post's strike (Thank you I'll start using UPS).
I just saw that my small Yellow Tang 2in.. Once healthy... has a few tiny black spots.. So I'm guessing it's black ich.
It's the 1st time in 3years with this tank that one of my fish gets sick :cry: and the worst part it's I don't know what to do!!! :cry: He seems healthy he's swiming, playing and schooling with the other fish like always and he's pooping huge green poop :mrgreen: He seems ok.. But I don't know what to do! I don't want him to die or my other fish to get infected! What should I do??? I don't have a quarantine tank :neutral: It's the black ich going to go away if I keep him "healthy" and well fed? And what caused this black ich outbreak?

SOS!!!

[naesco]

Give her a freshwater bath and the black ich will drop off.
What is the size of your tank?

[dynamite]

I have a 90g tank
My Yellow Tang is quite small tho, like 2 inches?
I don't know if is Black ich.. he seems fine.. 2 days ago I added carbon and I didn't rinse it :neutral: Do you think it may be some particles of carbon? How can I tell if it's black ich or carbon? :surprise:

[abcha0s]

You really must rinse your carbon. There is a suspected link between carbon dust and HLLE. There was a study being done a while ago to validate this, but I haven't heard anything more since and I do not know the results. However, it's not hard to imagine that carbon dust could be very bad for fish.

- Brad

[cwatkins]

You really must rinse your carbon. There is a suspected link between carbon dust and HLLE. - Brad

Or just buy the Carbon from BRS that has minimal dust.

I don't rinse mine, what I do is just let the first few gallons of water run through it into a pale, and then when the water is running clear then I put the output back into the sump. In effect this is rinsing it, but it's much easier than trying to rinse it by hand at the sink.

[dynamite]

Thanks for the info.. I'll start rinsing my carbon.

I think I'm going to give my YellowTang a fresh water bath.
He's hard to catch!!!
Would a cleaner shrimp or wrasse do the job?

[dynamite]

Ok, so after half an hour of chasing my Yellow Tang and destroying my aquascape :cry: I gave my yellow tang a 6m freshwater bath to get rid of the black spots... and apparently they're gone. He's stressed and hiding :sad: And I hope he survives to this bad experience of swimming in freshwater.

I don't want to stress him more so I'll re-aquascape the tank tomorrow, I'm afraid to lose him :cry:

I also found my Candy Cane Pistol shrimp! I thought he died or something... Now he shares the same rock with my Yasha Goby but not the same entrance :twised: