Re: Oh! I've flushed my sexy shrimp into the toilet!

ferret · #1 09-07-2012, 02:08 PM

I had been keeping a group of 10+ sexy shrimps in a small system ( mainly for various macro algae ) for a while. The tragedy happened early this morning when I performed my weekly water change and I had siphoned one of the shrimp without being noticed into the 5gal bucket. By the time I poured the waste water into the toilet & noticed the poor little guy. Well, that was a bit too late for the shrimp was being flushed away before I could do anything to save it. Sigh! I learnt a good lesson & put a warning sign next to the tank reminding me to be more careful in the future.

MKLKT · #2 09-07-2012, 02:57 PM

When I first got my starry blenny I was working around the kitchen sink and dumped it into the fish net which he promptly slipped right through somehow and right down the drain. I was livid, checked under the sink and there was no trap! Luckily I ran downstairs and found the trap for the sink in the unfinished ceiling. I opened it up into a container and out popped a bunch of pennies, a fork and the blenny! I ran back upstairs and chucked the fish into the tank. The fish survived and is still going strong.

(Un)fortunately you wouldn't do that with a toilet.

Nano · #3 09-07-2012, 03:57 PM

My first clownfish I was getting ready to acclimate him, they put so much water in the bag that I had to drain some, when I got to my bucket to drip him... Now clownfish I quickly ran to the sink to see him flopping in the drain grabbed him popped him in the bucket and he's still the luckiest little fish in the tank. Lol he was just slightly too big to fit down the sink, luckily.

Coleus · #4 09-07-2012, 04:18 PM

well, we all made mistakes. I put box fish and imperial angel in the same bucket when acclimated, 30 minutes later check the bucket and angel is dead

FishyFishy! · #5 09-07-2012, 05:21 PM

I wasn't looking one time while siphoning water out for a water change... was using a fairly large siphon hose (1").... Copper Banded Butterfly swam by and got sucked to the end of the hose....guts almost all sucked out. I have never forgiven myself for that one.

*** Hey this feels good to get that off my chest!!!! New thread idea? :-)

FishyFishy! · #6 09-07-2012, 05:24 PM

Oh.. and I also didn't know that a new yellow wrasse that I was acclimating had jumped the bucket. I walked by to get something....and "CRUNCH"...I stepped on him

mrhasan · #7 09-07-2012, 11:25 PM

This happened to me in my freshwater tank. Afterwards, I have always used a net to cover the mouth of the siphon.

DCDN · #8 09-07-2012, 11:57 PM

My tailspot blenny would constantly jump into the overflow. The only way I could get him out is by siphoning him out. He would be fine afterwards but back in the a few days later. Eventually just moved him down into the fuge in the sump.

Reef_Geek · #9 09-08-2012, 07:04 PM

Hello everyone. My name is Jonathan and I am a fish killer.

I was once draining a tank with one of those siphon systems that hooks up to your tap. I left the siphon primed and sitting on the tank unattended while I ran to the tap to flip from drain-to-fill. When I ran back I noticed a black mass in the hose. It was my black moor.

Black moor is the big puffy black goldfish with gigantic googly eyes, typically about 2.5" when offered for sale. The typical siphon/tap system uses 3/4" diameter hose.

On a separate note, I also killed a mushroom recently. I finished a water change and noticed my salinity was a bit low. I got lazy. Instead of draining out some water into a bucket to dissolve more salt... I put some salt in a shallow container... lowered it into the tank to dissolve and let overflow. Some salt mix got out and landed directly on a shroom... actually it was a Rhodactis. The shroom had a hole in the center clear to the bare live rock. I guess it's actually not killed. It's still recovering, with the living flesh still flapping about... and that was about 2 weeks ago.

On the topic of confessions. I am also a coral molester. I can't keep my hands out of my reef tank, moving things around. My wife yells at me all the time to stop bothering the corals.

Borderjumper · #10 09-08-2012, 07:40 PM

Raising hand...

I too am a fish killer.

I was doing a tank swap a few years ago. I caught all the fish and transferred them, then transferred the rock etc. I took the tunze pumps out and as they were quite gunked up I soaked them in a bucket of straight vinegar. An hour later I went to check and accck it seemed a firefish had been hiding inside one. He was a pickle by then.