Catching fish in overflow
 

Found my fairy wrasse in my overflow this morning. I started to drain it, but noticed the fish just sits in the bottom, concerned I may drain all the water and not be able to reach it if it doesn't drain as well.

I can't get my arm in all the way due to the euro bracing. Any suggestions?

Bend a small net

That worked, thanks Nick! It looks mighty po'd now, but I'm glad it hopped in the overflow rather than the floor.

Glad it worked. I have a few nets all bent up lol

I always just stick a net under the overflow drain pipe in the sump and then pull the standpipe out very quickly. Works every time.

I did try that a couple of times. The fish just curled up on the bottom in a corner as soon as the water started draining.

I used to have a pair of blue sided fairy wrasses who would always jump into the overflow. It got to the point I would just flood the overflow (I put valve on the drain pipe, so all I had to do was close the valve and turn off the sump return) and they'd just jump back into the tank on their own.

Lost both those particular fish in the same night when the canopy door wasn't shut properly. Both jumped. Of all the rotten luck.. :( Moral: make sure you have adequate coverings if you have fairy wrasses. It's really a question of when not if and it's just better if they can fall back into the water rather than something else. :neutral:

I don't know how your overflows are set up but when this happened to me I just restricted the drain so the aquarium overfilled and this enabled the fish to just swim out of the top of the overflow all on its own. Obviously not the best way if left unattended, but for the dumb clownfish that jumped the gate it was as stress free as I could have made it.

I think the reason it ended up in there was bec my filter sock was clogged, so the overflow wasn't draining at all. I noticed it missing last night but thought it had just gone to bed early....:lol: might have just swam on in.

I do need to cover the tank as its not just wrasses that jump, I've lost clowns, hogfish and even my trigger jumped (I was sitting in the room when that happened and was able to toss him back in)

fish in overflow
 

my fairy wrasse jumped into my overflow;i fished him out after 3 hours of trying.he then jumped back in within 2 min.he has now been happily living in my overflow for 9 months

^ LOL

What is it with fairy wrasse and overflows? I'm convinced mine just got a kick out of the roller coaster ride down to the sump. Always looked really pi$$ed off when I put him back in the main tank too.

The only way I've managed to stop him is to feed him so much that he's too fat to fit through the gap now... :biggrin: