plant pot death trap for cory -eek!

[L number Banana]

Just a quick warning bout those little clay pots that some aquatic plants come in.

I use them all the time for new plants and for things like looping airhoses through them to act as weights....BAD IDEA! Almost lost my largest

corydoras paleatus

. I noticed she didn't come out to feed for a few days and then I got worried and stated to move things around only to finally realize she was stuck inside the pot that the airtube also goes through. Really stuck. She couldn't move forward or back. If I tried to slide the tube out, I could tell it was increasing the pressure on her somehow. She was kind of puffy and had blood on her cheek/gill area.

Big panic and gentle movements to get it off did nothing. I finally had to get visegrips and slowly increase the pressure on the outside of the pot until it just cracked and fell off. She swam away and is doing fine this evening. No sign of the bloody spot but I put some melafix in just to help with the possible bacteria (??). She's eating with the others now.

Feel really stupid for not seeing that coming Hope this helps save some little fish somewhere.

No more little round fish-hold traps of any kind!

[DJ-don]

aww : i hope the little fella survives

speaking of death traps, i have had the same problem with thin val rooots!! i dont know how but one of my albino bn's got caught in it once and died

[Birger]

Also have to watch out on uplift tubes, they force themselves past the air hose and can't back out.

[Myric]

I came very close to loose a large female botia loachata that got itself stuck in the drainage hole of a clay pot. The only reason I saved it is that she made quite a racket trying to get out of there.

[DJ-don]

Also have to watch out on uplift tubes, they force themselves past the air hose and can't back out.

oh god poor fish :/ my bn fry do this all the time but something like that has never happened

[Viktor Jarikov]

I finally had to get visegrips and slowly increase the pressure on the outside of the pot until it just cracked and fell off.

could you also simply cut the tube and slide it out of the pot?

I came very close to loose a large female botia loachata that got itself stuck in the drainage hole of a clay pot. The only reason I saved it is that she made quite a racket trying to get out of there.

in the middle of the night, my jardini arowana decided to slither into the AquaClear 110 hang-on and started flapping inside in 0.2" of water on top of the ceramic rings making quite a rattle. Good thing the cover fits so snugly that it did not come off right away so she rattled long enough for me to wake up and come downstairs for a look-see.

[L number Banana]

Victor Jarikov wrote:

L number Banana wrote:I finally had to get visegrips and slowly increase the pressure on the outside of the pot until it just cracked and fell off.

could you also simply cut the tube and slide it out of the pot?

I tried that first but it made too much pressure and the cory would look like she was going to burst if I pulled it out either way The visegrips worked well because it can be tightened just a tiny tiny bit until the pressure on the pot cracked it without actually squeezing the fish. Don't know what I would have done if the pot was plastic.

She's doing fine, like nothing ever happened. I think I must have found her just in time.

I still haven't found a good substitute for weights for my air lines. I was thinking I could fill the holes with silicon Don't want to use lead weights. Any ideas?

[Viktor Jarikov]

good job! good thinking on your legs!

nothing beyond my naive methods involving
-- suction cups (but not the ones with ridgid snap-in holders - these too sharp - but the ones used for thermometers with a hole in the stem of the cup)
-- twist plastic-clad wire and small natural rocks
-- aluminum weights (cubed slugs really) in which I drilled holes