clown survivor story

mkzimms

Member
a little more than a month ago i came home to find my percula clown completely missing from my 12 gal aquapod! i searched and searched, under rocks, in the back of the tank... everywhere! he was nowhere to be found. i tested water everyday, no ammonia spike, nothing, and with subsequent searches for about a week i eventually came the to conclusion that he had been picked clean by the hermits and he was gone for good. But in my heart i still had a glimmer of hope that he'd be found

so a friend came over today and we began to frag some zoos when he nonchalantly looked over at me and asked why i was keeping a fish in the back sump. i took a peak and there was Twinkie looking up at me from behind the pump return. well, the rescue mission ensued. short of calling in the national guard we lured him to the surface with some mysis shrimp and popped him back over the wall into his rightful home where he immediately resumed guarding over his favorite mushroom. he looks great and hasn't even lost any weight.

he must have made his way down to the mysterious 4th chamber below the 3 vertical chambers and disappeared from sight being scared off every time i went to look for him. so for over a month
he lived there... no light, endured an 8 hour power outage and ate scraps off the few pieces of rubble rock kept in the chambers.
needless to say im VERY happy hes back, my hat goes off to twinkie, hes a true survivor! in light of his amazing disappearing act i have under gone the process of legally changing his name to Houdini!
 

mkzimms

Member
everytime i walk by the tank and i dont see him immediatly, i start to freak out. my father's suggestion was to stretch some nylon cloth over the back chambers to keep him from washing over the edge. ill be doing that tonight.
 

scotts

Active Member
I had a clown missing once and I found it a week later inside my canister filter. Yeah I put the little plastic guard thing on soon afterwards.
 

snaredrum

Member
You know I'm seeing all the time that fish are getting over the back wall of these All-In-one tanks. I wonder why the companies don't fix this problem by adding 1/2" to an inch to the back wall. I have a 29 BioCube and have had all 3 of my fish over the back. My water is not flowing over but when you put your hand in the tank it will. The last time I wasn't so lucky, my clown met his match with a Maxi-Jet 900 intake from my skimmer. Maybe new versions with consider this problem.
 

mkzimms

Member
twinkies problem is he sleeps where the overflow is in the back left corner, its also where one of my return pipes is flowing water parallel across the back of the tank to bounce it off the (looking at the tank) left side wall. i guess one wrong wiggle and he gets washed over the back wall by the current.
 
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