Risk of sucking up teeny tiny curious fish during a water change

[Fishbird]

This might be a silly question, but here goes.

I have two rough head blennies in my QT tank. (They are similar to barnacle blennies.) They are tiny and curious; they don’t swim away when I go up to the tank. They watch me. I haven’t had to do a water change yet because I put a sponge from my DT into the QT but I’m going to have to do a water change at some point and I’m afraid of sucking these little guys up. Should I be? Should I confine them to a breeder net in the tank?

 

[Spare time]

You are fine, just don't put the siphon next to them

 

[Fishbird]

Thanks. I guess my fear is that they’ll be curious about the siphon and come over to investigate and get too close, since they are curious about other things. But hopefully they have good enough instincts to know that the siphon is one thing they should stay clear of!

 

[LxHowler]

I had this when my clown was small it likes to try and swim into the siphon, it still does even though it's bigger than the tube now. If you are just changing water and not vacuuming the sand what I used to do was get a net material and elastic band to cover the end so when the clown got close it couldn't go into the siphon. I dont worry now and just keep moving the siphon to keep it away. I have to do this alot in my tropical tank that's full of tiny fish with a large siphon
Don't know if any of this will help but it's my experience with curious fish and syphons.

 

[Fishbird]

I had this when my clown was small it likes to try and swim into the siphon, it still does even though it's bigger than the tube now. If you are just changing water and not vacuuming the sand what I used to do was get a net material and elastic band to cover the end so when the clown got close it couldn't go into the siphon. I dont worry now and just keep moving the siphon to keep it away. I have to do this alot in my tropical tank that's full of tiny fish with a large siphon
Don't know if any of this will help but it's my experience with curious fish and syphons.

Oh I should have thought of this! Thank you! I have an extra mesh media bag that I can cut up and rubber band to the end of the siphon.

 

[champyeti]

My old neon goby swam into the turkey baster I was using to clean the tank once (also used it for spot feeding him pellets) lol. Basted him back out and he was fine...

 

[jeffrey750750]

I sucked up my gladiator clown with the 1/2in hose I was using to suck up dinos. Instead of bending the hose to cut off flow I panicked and pulled him out by the tail. He's fine but freaked me out

 

[mfinn]

I use net material over the end of the suction tube.
I have in the past just placed a small fish net over the end of the tube.

 

[Johnd651]

If you siphon into a bucket just net him back in after hes done with his water park ride

 

[JasonK84]

I lost a Pakistani Butterflyfish this way. It got close to the hose in QT while changing water. He stuck to the end of the hose just for a second before I plugged the other end. It stressed him so bad that he was dead a couple hours later. Had been in QT for about 3 weeks and was eating good just before the incident.

 

[fcmatt]

I lost a Pakistani Butterflyfish this way. It got close to the hose in QT while changing water. He stuck to the end of the hose just for a second before I plugged the other end. It stressed him so bad that he was dead a couple hours later. Had been in QT for about 3 weeks and was eating good just before the incident.

When I tried keep butterfly fish in my early days just giving them a dirty look would cause them to die. Everything else lived for years except a couple of butters I tried to keep. Sigh!

I agree with other posters. Just pick the fish out of the bucket and toss back in.

 

[kyleinpdx]

I sucked up my yellow clown goby once, he made it about 1/2 through the tubing before I could react, pulled it from the tank, swapped the tubing ends around and gave it a good blow, sent him rocketing back into the tank and he barely noticed.