ideas for sealing aquarium back for escape artists

[Chili_girl]

I'm looking for ideas for sealing aquarium back for escape artists. Irene said in one of her videos Amano shrimp she had escaped and was found across the room under some throw pillows. I have now experienced this. I found one across the room from the aquarium on my tile floor - dead. All others except for 2-3 Amano shrimp have disappeared. I was going to order more but want to fix this first.

I have one of those plastic flappers on the back of the glass lid but not flush. Does anyone have any ideas as to the best way to seal the back besides cutting multiple holes in the plastic to prevent further casualties? I have a canister filter intake tube, heater cord, air tube for sponge filter, etc... coming out the back. 

P.S. I ran into the same problem with another tank with Reticulated Hillstream Loaches. I read they are also known to escape.

[Ben P.]

What I do that works well for me is to go to a glass shop in the town I live in, bring them your exact dimensions and the exact sizes of everything you need cut into the glass for air lines, power lines, canister piping ECT and they will cut you a piece of glass that fits perfectly.  I also have them cut and roughly 1 inch hole towards the front centered to feed through and put a small piece of clear plastic or small piece of glass over that hole when I'm not feeding.  Has always been pretty reasonable price for me too 

[Tanked]

A roll of Gutter mesh or any of the other vinyl gutter leaf protection panels should work.  I use the gutter mesh to keep the Nerites out of the lift tubes on the UGF.

If you are closing smaller spaces, the plastic mesh sold in craft stores for embroidery can be cut to fit.  I don't know what sizes they come in.

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/20/2023 at 6:59 AM, Chili_girl said:

I'm looking for ideas for sealing aquarium back for escape artists. Irene said in one of her videos Amano shrimp she had escaped and was found across the room under some throw pillows. I have now experienced this. I found one across the room from the aquarium on my tile floor - dead. All others except for 2-3 Amano shrimp have disappeared. I was going to order more but want to fix this first.

The shrimp will pretty much only do this if there is an issue. It might not be clear what the issue is, but there's some tips we can incorporate to make things a bit better for the shrimp and their vacation plans.

That being said, I roll up a towel and lay it over gaps in trim when need be.

What are all of your water parameters and how is filtration setup?

[Chili_girl]

20g long heavily planted tank with 2-3 amano shrimp left, only 2 cherry shrimp left, 9 neon tetras and 6 white clouds doing great, two nerite snails.

nitrites 0

nitrates 20-40

ammonia 0

Ph 8.2 (plan to add peat to canister filter, already have driftwood) 

temp 77

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/20/2023 at 9:54 AM, Chili_girl said:

20g long heavily planted tank with 2-3 amano shrimp left, only 2 cherry shrimp left, 9 neon tetras and 6 white clouds doing great, two nerite snails.

If you can move the neons, everything else in the tank is a river type of species that likes a bit cooler temp, higher oxygenation, and that's likely one thing going on.  If you can't, I highly recommend a bubble wall or adding an additional air stone ( or filter). Keep in mind that those fish and inverts will handle about as much flow as you can put into the tank without issue and that replicates some of their natural origins.

PH seems a bit high, especially for amanos. Mine got pretty upset with me when things were 7.6-7.8. Normally range for me is 6.8-7.4, normally around 6.8-7.0.  it could've been the jump and change in the pH, but I do see a few sources out there recommending 7.4-7.6 as a high end limit for amanos. I've seen up to 8.  Let's say, if you're seeing them with bright red shells, it's likely a PH issue as well. They can get a mahogany brown, but the bright red is a stress sign, normally PH indicative for me.

If possible, please just verify the KH/GH via liquid  test in future as well. Having the inverts and shrimp it's a great, affordable test kit and very easy to use. Thankfully quick!

Edited October 20, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Craft mesh. https://a.co/d/0j8vqxh

 

On 10/20/2023 at 12:01 PM, Tanked said:

the plastic mesh sold in craft stores for embroidery

👍

On 10/20/2023 at 10:38 AM, Ben P. said:

go to a glass shop in the town I live in, bring them your exact dimensions and the exact sizes of everything you need cut into the glass for air lines, power lines, canister piping ECT and they will cut you a piece of glass that fits perfectly.

Here is another lid option <— click

depending on what size tank you have @Chili_girl 

I have 2 of these and really like them.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[TheBlueBeetle]

I cut up a foam filter pad and use the pieces to plug the openings around cords, pipes, and tubes. It’s black so it doesn’t stand out and is easy to cut to to size. It’ll squeeze in and fill the gap nicely.