DIY Strainer for BeanAnimal Siphon?

[blennyfromtheblock]

Hi there, looking for ideas for something that I'm sure has been done before, but which I haven't been able to find so far. At present I have a 30 cube with an internal coast-to-coast overflow with BeanAnimal plumbing. In the last month, I've lost two fish that found their way into the overflow box, then were pulled down the full siphon pipe and killed when they collided with the gate valve. :( I'd like to put a strainer or screen on the mouth of the pipe to keep this from happening again, but because the siphon elbow is down-turned, there is only about a 1" gap between the rim of the elbow and the "floor" of the overflow box. I have a number of old strainers of this type, (and I already have one in place on the up-turned elbow of the emergency overflow pipe), but they're all too tall to fit into the siphon pipe as it's currently positioned. Does anyone know of any DIY strainers that would sit flush, or nearly flush, with the mouth of the pipe?

 

[143MPCo]

Egg create, cut to shape and fitted on the top of the overflow will help keep most average sized fish from even getting into the box to begin with. For smaller fish, you can add plastic gutter guard mesh screen on top of the egg create as it't not rigid/stiff enough to hold in place on it's own.