Puffers and Powerheads

[davidcanupp]

I just don't understand: over the past two years I have successfully kept three types of puffers in separate tanks, until one day i walk in and find them dead on the powerhead. All my other fish are always fine and the puffers are never sick beforehand. First, i lost a valentini, then, a blue spot, now, i lost my porcipine puffer that has been alive and well for over two years! I guess no more powerheads with puffy's. Does anyone know why this keeps happening???

 

[damsel in distress]

This would be a good question to ask in the Aggressive setup forum! I would move it over their......lots of people including Pufferlover have puffers and I am sure they can help you!!! HTH
Jessica

 

[pufferlover]

Questions that arise are did they die and then get sucked to the powerhead. Second do your powerheads have a pre-filter on them. I have heard of a case where a Pork was stuck to a powerhead and the owner shut it down and the Puffer had a bad bruise but survived (in fact it was here a while back that it was posted- and the owner did go and get a pre-filter after that). If this happened in more then one tank was there are indications that the Puffs were sick or not acting right before you found them dead. In reading your post I was a bit confused as to whether you were saying they died and ended up on the powerhead or you think the powerhead killed them- can you clarify that point for me.

 

[thereefman52]

All i can say is, puffers swim akwardly, and with very thin fins. so if they swim close enought and a thin fin gets sucked in, it does not have the power to swim off of it. also... like pufferlover said, make a pre-filter like a piece plastic from a strawberry container from the story and put it over the power head

 

[flamehawk]

A puffer will get sucked up by a powerhead and if it goes undedected long enough it could unfortunayely kill him. You can buy a pre-filter or cardridge from your lfs or on line. It's a must because PH's also suck up smaller fish when they are floating in the water resting after lights are off.

 

[davidcanupp]

Pufferlover: to answer your questions, I am very sure that these fish were not sick as they looked great, ate well, and had lived in the tanks for a while. I'm pretty sure that they died as a result of getting sucked on the powerhead. I have had this happen with nudibraches before and they all lived but the puffs never make it. I guess that I will have to get a some sort of prefilter before i get my next puffer.. THe thing that confuses me is taht they never get sucked to the filter intakes, only the powerheads.