Otocinclus stuck in sponge filter

[SpiritLiefe]

I will preface this to say that he appears to be fine. He's got a scratch where he got scraped by the plastic from me pulling him out. It definitely happened overnight so it's good I check my tanks every morning. I came in and he was just sitting in the tube flapping with the bubbles. I assumed he was dead so I pulled the plug for the whole tank to retrieve him and he wiggled. So I pulled the filter out and started disassembling it. I considered pushing him back through and decided that would probably hurt him more. I didn't want to twist him and injure him or break him in half. So I just gently tugged his tail and he immediate dove to the bottom of the tank. 

I'm sure he's not very happy but he's alive and unstuck. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I can't be the only one.

 

Picture of the sponge just for reference I was too busy worrying about my fish to get the picture of him stuck in there but it crossed my mind and I decided to just hurry up and help him. He's on a leaf now so he seems like he's going to be okay. 

[Joshua14]

This happened to me maybe 7 months ago. I didn't know he was in there at all and tried to do maintenance on my sponge and there he was all the way inside stuck. I took the ring apart and swooshed him around in the tank free. He had an injury similar to yours as well. That went away eventually. 

Glad your little one is okay!