Lost my favorite jawfish and I killed it

[mloebl]

I thought I was having a bad day until I came home Been setting up the auto top off for my small tank for the past few days, I just haven't permanently attached the new float switch. I typically manually add some water when I get home from work, but the past 2 nights haven't been home until late. Well I get home today and I noticed the tank level low and sump level was high. Typical cause for this is some air got into the intake of the pump due to the evap, so it stops pumping (annoying habit of the cheap little giant pump where any air pocket won't pass thru.) I add some fresh top off manually, start the pump back up, and see something get sucked into the pump. I immediatley get a sick feeling but hope it was just an air pocket or chaeto in the line. Try a couple of times, no luck. Finally resolved to take out the pump and see if there may be some chaeto in there. I *just* got the replacement screen for the intake tonight via FedEx, so sucked up chaeto bits won't be a problem anymore. I disconnect the line, sure enough, there was one of my jawfish it was obviously freshly killed as it started bleeding moments after I shut off the water. Apparently it must have gotten into the sump and had a nice day of pod feedings, and when the pump stopped, it found the hole for the pump and was hanging out in there as it's really the only place it could hide. By me adding water and turning it back on, I sucked him into the pump Now I am very depressed... Ironically if the replacement screen had come one day earlier, it wouldn't of happend I've got no one to blame but myself.

-Mike

 

[sw300galma]

*&it happends man...Sorry for the loss...Always sucks...

 

[delta]

Sorry to hear that

 

[Moe_K]

Ouch. That sucks a whole lot.

 

[Firedancer718]

So sorry to hear that Mike. I know how much you liked those fish

 

[Triggerfish]

Typical cause for this is some air got into the intake of the pump due to the evap, so it stops pumping

sorry to hear.. but how the heck do you have your sump setup where the return section would run so low in a day to cause air to get into pump?

 

[mloebl]

Thanks for the messages. I still have one jawfish left which is better than none, but it does look pretty lonely now.

It evaporated over two days, and a big part of it was the size of the sump/fuge itself due to the space limitations of the area it's in. It's only a 10g, so with the light above it, it evaporates pretty quick. To maximize the space for the skimmer and fuge area, after the baffles it's probably a 3.5" wide section where the 3/4" return line comes out of the side as close to the buttom as I could. Maybe a couple gallons of water in there so evaps fast if I'm not careful. It just needs to come within an inch or so of the drain line before the suction can cause a vortex to pull in some air. I think what i may do instead of a screen is get a length of PVC pipe and drill some holes in the buttom of it. It will lay parellel to bottom of the sump of it reduces the chances of any air getting in as it will be pulling water in from the bottom and the small holes would be too small for a fish, but large enough for pods to still pass thru. in a couple days when the top off is done, it will all be moot anyways.

-Mike

 

[Triggerfish]

oh i see you have a 29g with the 10g sump.. i was trying to figure out how this happened in the 100g sump. didnt see in where you stated small tank at the very top of your post.....

 

[ReefRookie]

similar thing happened to me man. i breed bettas for fun on the side other than my marine tank. my original baby, my very first successful bred and raised betta i recently killed by accident. i unplugged my heater and forgot to plug it in one day. i turned on my ac and boom the water went down to 68, shocking her fast. by the tiem i realized the temp drop i frantically plugged in the heater and turned it up. three hours later i went to check on him and 95 degrees toasted my baby... i was pissed. back to the breeding guild for me. sucks

 

[Gina McReeferson]

Sorry to hear that, Mike.

I was so excited recently when I bought 2 jawfish, I was hoping that maybe they'd share the same burrow, maybe be a pair, and everything would be dandy!

Well, a couple of days later, one of them turned up dead, and we've never seen the other one. We have no idea what could have happened.

The only thought we came up with was that maybe one or both of our purple firefish killed him/them. I mean, they do look similar. Is this possible? I still would like to have a pair of jawfish but if my firefish were actually the culprits, I don't want that to happen again.

-Gina

 

[mloebl]

My fiancee was like "It happens, you can get another one..." but it does feel 10x worse when it's self induced negligence vs carpet surfing. Mine had recently paired up and were hanging out in the same burrow too and would mirror each other when swimming (looked kinda cool.) At least he/she had quite their fill of pods before the incident. I'm going to hold off replacing him/her until I finish the top off on this tank.

I'm not sure if a firefish would attack them, but sorry to hear that Gina Did this just happen? I know for the first week I got the two, I thought they had died since they were experts at finding little hiding spots. Then one day to my excitement I saw them working on burrows and eating. I made a custom acryllic canopy for this tank instead of eggcrate (which I guess they can still get thru) to avoid them jumping out.

-Mike

 

[Gina McReeferson]

Thanks Mike, this happened a couple of weeks ago. We had only had them for a couple of days and never saw them (although we saw plenty signs of them from the sand lumps everywhere ), until that one turned up dead. There have been no signs of the other one at all. I figured by now we would have seen him if he was still alive. I guess it's possible though. We would love to get a couple more, but I don't want them to die again. I have a tough time with that, as I'm sure we all do. It's so much worse though, when you've had the fish for a while and have watched them interact, such as you did.

I think I may start a thread this weekend and see if anyone knows if firefish are a threat to jawfish and vice versa. I want to get to the bottom of what happened to my beautiful jawfish.

Take care, Mike,
Gina