Fish stuck between intake filter and glass

[Manchineel]

I got home from work today and one of my CPDs was dead, stuck between the glass and my intake sponge. I removed him and cut down my sponge to be flush against the glass, is there anything more I can do to prevent this from happening?

[CJs Aquatics]

Sorry for your loss, honestly in my opinion things like this just tend to happen as a means to teach us things that work and don’t work in keeping the fish we are keeping. I once had a betta decide one day to swim into a piece of decor and not get out, the piece had been in there for probably a year without incident but one random day it was a problem, also had a pleco get stuck in a cave they had used many many times etc. it’s awful when things like that happen but oftentimes after minor adjustment like you made that’s the end of it. To answer your question I think that would probably suffice as a solution. If the sponge is slipping off the intake rubber bands can be used or fishing line, if the sizing is wrong more material can be added relatively easily, or if you just want to cut the area off completely without restricting flow perhaps a craft mesh cage or landscape mesh divider of some sort but honestly I think it was probably just a freak accident and you’ve already solved it in my opinion…

[nabokovfan87]

Can you show a picture of the filter setup?

Ultimately it might be a flow issue and the fish was sleeping.

[Manchineel]

On 11/1/2022 at 5:46 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Can you show a picture of the filter setup?

Ultimately it might be a flow issue and the fish was sleeping.

 

[nabokovfan87]

You could try moving it slightly towards the center of the tank so it's not right up against the wall.  I lean towards it being the flow compared to the tank size.  If the GPH of the pump is pretty high (more than 10x) the tank, it might be an issue for those fish in that setting.  I had it happen with barbs and the seachem tidal.  They would sleep and get sucked against the skimmer grate.