revhtree
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It all started like any other day.....
Ok I'll cut to the chase. Dory was missing! It's not uncommon for my yellow bellied blue tang (Dory) to go hiding under rocks for a period of a few hours after being spooked. But when she hadn't come out all day I knew something was amiss! So I begin to hunt for her and she's nowhere to be found. She's not under any of the normal rocks or in the normal places she likes to hide. I was beginning to fear the worst so I started looking around the tank thinking maybe she might have jumped somewhere. I check behind the tank and, nothing!
Many of you know that I have recently moved so I have the 120g set up temporarily in a basement room that the previous owners used for taking care of plants in the winter so it's got a sealed and painted concrete floor and plenty of lighting and power so it's perfect. Luckily I thought things through and decided to set the tank up about 3ft off the back wall so I could easily get behind it and plumb it, route wires, etc. It's not pretty but it's effective. Tonight it proved very valuable!
Ok back to the story. As I wonder around the back, not seeing anything on the floor, I glanced at the back of the overflow not expecting to find her because the overflow entry isn't that large and she isn't that small. Well wouldn't you know it, Dory has been found!
Can you spot her? (sorry for the nasty algae)
Before I could grasp the reality of the whole situation I had to have a little chuckle when I started thinking about what was going down with a certain new movie and the fact that I had found Dory. Get it?
After my laugh, a little bit of nervousness set in because I realized that "Dory" was in a spot that I have never been able to get to with my hands or any kind of tool because the opening was just not big enough. The tank is kinda deep too so that didn't help either. It dawned on me that the ONLY way I could even try to get her out was to pop the standpipe and return line out but as soon as that happens I have literally 5 seconds to get her out or shes laying on the bottom gasping for air. After measuring some nets that I had I realized that I didn't have a tool and I had to figure something out.
What do I have long enough and skinny enough? Nothing but PVC! So my MacGyver instincts kick in and I come up with the plan to retrofit a fish net and somehow cleverly attach it to the PVC so that I would be able to rescue my fish. Ok I wish it were more dramatic like that but all I had to do was crush together the end of the net and insert it into the PVC end. No need to figure out how to attach it, it fit perfect and as snug as a bug in a rug.
Once I completed "Dory Grabber" I measured the overflow reach and cut the PVC to size, not once but twice. ;)
Now is where it gets sticky and actually pretty scary because I love my fish and want to take the best care of them that I can. It was time to go in and get her! I knew I only had seconds and if she got too flat on the bottom I wouldn't be able to scoop here because of the small area. I also knew that she might settle over the holes and I wouldn't be able to reinsert the standpipe and overflow piping to refill and save her.
I pulled the trigger and popped out the return lines! The water begin gushing out as I reached in a popped the overflow lines. The snail that was having dinner on that pipe never saw me coming! I grabbed my Dory tool and went to scoop her just before the last bit of water seeped from the overflow and to my amazement and jubilation she hopped right in as if to say, "it's about time, where you been all day!"
In a matter of 5 seconds it was over, she was back in the tank and hiding again. Dory was found!
Whoooo, time for a nap!
PS. I fixed the overflow issue...
Ok I'll cut to the chase. Dory was missing! It's not uncommon for my yellow bellied blue tang (Dory) to go hiding under rocks for a period of a few hours after being spooked. But when she hadn't come out all day I knew something was amiss! So I begin to hunt for her and she's nowhere to be found. She's not under any of the normal rocks or in the normal places she likes to hide. I was beginning to fear the worst so I started looking around the tank thinking maybe she might have jumped somewhere. I check behind the tank and, nothing!
Many of you know that I have recently moved so I have the 120g set up temporarily in a basement room that the previous owners used for taking care of plants in the winter so it's got a sealed and painted concrete floor and plenty of lighting and power so it's perfect. Luckily I thought things through and decided to set the tank up about 3ft off the back wall so I could easily get behind it and plumb it, route wires, etc. It's not pretty but it's effective. Tonight it proved very valuable!
Ok back to the story. As I wonder around the back, not seeing anything on the floor, I glanced at the back of the overflow not expecting to find her because the overflow entry isn't that large and she isn't that small. Well wouldn't you know it, Dory has been found!
Can you spot her? (sorry for the nasty algae)
Before I could grasp the reality of the whole situation I had to have a little chuckle when I started thinking about what was going down with a certain new movie and the fact that I had found Dory. Get it?
After my laugh, a little bit of nervousness set in because I realized that "Dory" was in a spot that I have never been able to get to with my hands or any kind of tool because the opening was just not big enough. The tank is kinda deep too so that didn't help either. It dawned on me that the ONLY way I could even try to get her out was to pop the standpipe and return line out but as soon as that happens I have literally 5 seconds to get her out or shes laying on the bottom gasping for air. After measuring some nets that I had I realized that I didn't have a tool and I had to figure something out.
What do I have long enough and skinny enough? Nothing but PVC! So my MacGyver instincts kick in and I come up with the plan to retrofit a fish net and somehow cleverly attach it to the PVC so that I would be able to rescue my fish. Ok I wish it were more dramatic like that but all I had to do was crush together the end of the net and insert it into the PVC end. No need to figure out how to attach it, it fit perfect and as snug as a bug in a rug.
Once I completed "Dory Grabber" I measured the overflow reach and cut the PVC to size, not once but twice. ;)
Now is where it gets sticky and actually pretty scary because I love my fish and want to take the best care of them that I can. It was time to go in and get her! I knew I only had seconds and if she got too flat on the bottom I wouldn't be able to scoop here because of the small area. I also knew that she might settle over the holes and I wouldn't be able to reinsert the standpipe and overflow piping to refill and save her.
I pulled the trigger and popped out the return lines! The water begin gushing out as I reached in a popped the overflow lines. The snail that was having dinner on that pipe never saw me coming! I grabbed my Dory tool and went to scoop her just before the last bit of water seeped from the overflow and to my amazement and jubilation she hopped right in as if to say, "it's about time, where you been all day!"
In a matter of 5 seconds it was over, she was back in the tank and hiding again. Dory was found!
Whoooo, time for a nap!
PS. I fixed the overflow issue...
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