Fish stuck in overflow

[outdrsyguy1]

got a 4" zebra striped bar goby stuck in my overflow. just noticed him when i was looking up in the tank from underneath. no way i can get my hand or a net in there, any suggestions?
I really don't want to pull the bulkhead either if possible. looking for some ingenious ideas lol!!!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

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[lsu_fishfan]

Not sure how big he is, but if he is small enough, and you have a tube with a large diameter you could try and siphon him out.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

i might have a 1" line laying around somewhere, as long as he goes head or tail first that might work.

 

[tdam]

Cut the pump off. Siphon the water in the overflow only as much as you can. Then use a small brine shrimp net.

 

[rdnelson]

Start filling the overflow with filter floss. As you push it to the bottom he will have to move to the top to a point where you can reach him. Then use tongs to pull the floss out.

 

[enderg60]

1. get a big hose and suck him out with the water.

2. suck out water and use a small net.

3. place bucket under piping and remove the bulkhead.

4. Get some fishing line and a small hook.

 

[russ-iv]

i had this very issue. only way that worked for me was to fill the overflow with an inch of sand and lift that pipe. if the fish is small enough it'll "flush" in to the sump.

if you glued the overflow, good luck

 

[qasimja]

did you get him out?

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Busy day with work and family. Gonna try siphon tomorrow.

 

[jennm]

You are making it way harder than it needs to be.

Shut off the system. Put a net in the sump where the drain pipe empties out (you might need 2 people - one to hold this net.)

Pull out the standpipe. The water in the overflow box will empty into the sump (make sure ahead of time that you have extra room in the sump for this or you might want to siphon a gallon or two out of the tank BEFORE you shut it down...)

Let the fish ride the flume down to the waiting net at the bottom of the drain pipe, in the sump.

Much easier than trying to macgyver around within the overflow box.

Jenn

 

[russ-iv]

JennM;1043282 wrote: You are making it way harder than it needs to be.

Shut off the system. Put a net in the sump where the drain pipe empties out (you might need 2 people - one to hold this net.)

Pull out the standpipe. The water in the overflow box will empty into the sump (make sure ahead of time that you have extra room in the sump for this or you might want to siphon a gallon or two out of the tank BEFORE you shut it down...)

Let the fish ride the flume down to the waiting net at the bottom of the drain pipe, in the sump.

Much easier than trying to macgyver around within the overflow box.

Jenn

maybe you read past what i suggested, but you are parroting the same thing i just said.

 

[saltsultan]

Russ-IV;1043351 wrote: maybe you read past what i suggested, but you are parroting the same thing i just said.

Ummm what? Where in your fairyland do you her Jenn talk about using sand?

Jenn's comment makes sense.

Yours, like every other thread you make is confusing, ridiculous and only makes sense to you apparently.

 

[russ-iv]

SaltSultan;1043375 wrote: Ummm what? Where in your fairyland do you her Jenn talk about using sand?

Jenn's comment makes sense.

Yours, like every other thread you make is confusing, ridiculous and only makes sense to you apparently.

because you need a coloring book (or maybe a flip book)

simply "flushing" will be hard to work. the reason is the bulkhead inside the overflow.

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and the inch or so height by just lifting the overflow pipe

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now go reread what i stated.

 

[saltsultan]

Did, your still a tool.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

okay, so that was totally epic and near total disaster. I went with the pull the stand pipe method but next time i'm going to try my hand at the vacuum method lol. took 1.5 hours from start to finish. Luckily i pulled out 5 gallons and set it aside to lower the sump level which saved my tank from overflowing. twice i noticed at the last second that the tank was within 1/8" from completely overflowing the top, it was crazy!
Anyways, what happened was when i pulled the stand pipe, everything flushed down quick until it got to about 1/3 then stopped. All the dead snails and detritus over the last 3 years got sucked into the washing machine drain line and because of the ridges basically made a nearly complete plug in the line. I searched the sump and couldn't find the fish anywhere and checked in the overflow and it definitly wasn't there. so i figured i'd turn on the main return pump again to try and flush stuff through. wasn't paying attention and i was down in the sump when i was like "holy crap, why is my sump so low?" at which point it stood up and saw the waterline at the very top of the plastic rim of the tank and went for the apex shut off return pump button as fast as i could. Because my bulkhead doesn't sit right over my sump i couldn't risk pulling off the return line to the filter sock so i got some tubing and started trying to fish it down through the bulk head to clear the clog. luckily i thought, hmm.. if the fish is in there i'll probably crush him, so i went about going up from the bottom. I got it about 4" in the line and then WHOOSH, a flood of water shot out instead of the slight trickle and i manged to aim the water into the sump with only minor spillage inside the stand. so i pulled the filter socks, no fish and was like hmm... weird. So i tried turning on the return pump and i just couldn't get it to drain. so i'm no pro with duros stand pipes and thought maybe i messed it up somehow. after putting it in several times and adjusting the height nothing was happening (sometime around then i noticed i almost overflowed again, SUPER close call). At that point i figured there was probably another blockage but i couldn't get my tube in far enough to clear it because of the ridges on the drain line. Next i took a siphon and siphoned out all the water in the overflow (still was at like 40% high) because it wasn't draining. Next i unscrewed the drain pipe from the bulkhead and pulled it out. At this point I was 99% sure the fish was dead as it had been forever and there's no way he had water around him the whole time. The line had no water in it and i spent a minute or so with it over a bucked trying to straighten it out and look down the length of it to see the blockage when I spotted the fish sitting on top of the blockage not moving. So i straightened it real tight and shook it a bit and a bunch of shells and pieces of detritus fell out along with the fish.
Then to my surprise the fish started swimming around (i had done this over the 5 gallon bucket i pulled the extra water out with). Finally got everything back together and the stand pipe back in and tried to net the fish out of the bucket but wasn't having much luck. At which point it decided to carpet surf to freedom so i just grabbed it with my hand and threw it in the tank. Came out to eat tonight so all seems to be well now.

Man was that epic....lol

Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[russ-iv]

glad it worked out. that flexible pvc can be a pain at times.

SaltSultan;1043377 wrote: Did, your still a tool.

yeah?

well i smell good

 

[john_shay]

That is an epic adventure for sure. Not sure the height of the tank, but I was blessed with super long skinny arms, had this happen once and was able to reach all the way down and scoop him out.... in hind sight after a Saw movie-esque game of hard worm tubes slicing my are to pieces.... should have pulled the stand pipe

 

[jennm]

Russ-IV;1043351 wrote: maybe you read past what i suggested, but you are parroting the same thing i just said.

Parroting? You're funny. And yeah, I blew right past your post

I think my suggestions (plural) were more detailed, warned of possible complications so the reader could take proper precautions before beginning, and didn't involve putting sand in the overflow box, which will only be a bigger pain in the rear to clean out later.

I've used the method I described many times over the years.

The more important matter, is whether Outdrsgy1 was able to get the fish out, regardless of the method.

Jenn

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Hi Jenn. Not sure you saw my post above but amazingly enough I got it out and it lived. Though next time I think I'll figure out a way to not have everything drain through a ribbed washer hose so there's no jams.