The Puffer Forum

I'm sorry to say that George is no longer with me. I came to the conclusion that my tank did not have enough water circulation in it, so I ignorantly put in a submersible pump that I had previously used for hydroponics that i bought from a hydroponic store years ago. It was rated at 396 GPH, so its a fairly strong pump, i figured that if i put a mesh netting over the intake that everything would be fine...and it was, for several weeks. unfortunately one day when i got home, i seen george stuck to the intake, i immediately turned it off, and he started swimming vigorously for a few minutes. I noticed that one of his "side fins" for lack of a proper term, was badly damaged. I was hoping that he would pull through...but after 2 days of suffering he died . Ive never been so closely attached to a fish before, I had him for over a year, and he was doing great, at his peak and loving the bigger tank and full marine environment. I was very sad to see him go. I figured I would share this so that hopefully nobody else makes the same mistake, I am still pretty mad at myself over the whole ordeal.

Sorry for your loss

Oh no!!!

That sucks meat

Really sorry to hear that you lost such an awesome pet.

Thanks for the heads up on improper pumps.

BedScien wrote:That sucks meat

Really sorry to hear that you lost such an awesome pet.

Thanks for the heads up on improper pumps.

How do you do that lol ! This thread is 5 months old o.o. Idk how you even found it.

This is always sad, but I feel GSPs are inherently prone to this kind of issue. Every GSP I have kept has spent some of it's exercise time playing chicken with a pump inlet or powerhead. Sadly, I have lost more than one to this. I had a friend lose a GSP to a wavemaker when the fish was able to get up enough thrust to put a portion of it's body through the plastic shield. This has taught me a couple of cautionary habits when doing upgrades or maintenance on tanks with GSPs. When putting on a new filter, especially if it has the capability of higher flow than the old filter ie switching from Aquaclear 70 to 110, I throttle back the flow rate for the first couple weeks till the fish become comfortable with the filters placement than increase the flow slowly over weeks three and four. I do a similar thing when adding powerheads and wavemakers to a tank if they have the capablity of being adjusted. Sadly, increasing flow slowly is not always possible, so your best defensive is simply to observe the fish with the addition of any new equipment, and remove or move equipment if you feel the fish's behavior is gonna cause them to swim into an intake. Like I said at the beginning of the post, due to the GSPs nature of playing in water currents IMHO this can be a sad reality of keeping GSPs even if you take precautions.

Walla2GSP wrote:This is always sad, but I feel GSPs are inherently prone to this kind of issue. Every GSP I have kept has spent some of it's exercise time playing chicken with a pump inlet or powerhead. Sadly, I have lost more than one to this. I had a friend lose a GSP to a wavemaker when the fish was able to get up enough thrust to put a portion of it's body through the plastic shield. This has taught me a couple of cautionary habits when doing upgrades or maintenance on tanks with GSPs. When putting on a new filter, especially if it has the capability of higher flow than the old filter ie switching from Aquaclear 70 to 110, I throttle back the flow rate for the first couple weeks till the fish become comfortable with the filters placement than increase the flow slowly over weeks three and four. I do a similar thing when adding powerheads and wavemakers to a tank if they have the capablity of being adjusted. Sadly, increasing flow slowly is not always possible, so your best defensive is simply to observe the fish with the addition of any new equipment, and remove or move equipment if you feel the fish's behavior is gonna cause them to swim into an intake. Like I said at the beginning of the post, due to the GSPs nature of playing in water currents IMHO this can be a sad reality of keeping GSPs even if you take precautions.

]

Seems like sound advice.
I will be careful if i change to an external filter in the future

G S P Freak wrote:

BedScien wrote:That sucks meat

Really sorry to hear that you lost such an awesome pet.

Thanks for the heads up on improper pumps.

How do you do that lol ! This thread is 5 months old o.o. Idk how you even found it.

Ahahaha

My new habit of 'necro-threading'

It's because I've started to search the forum for tips and answers rather than posting straight away.

p.s. If bringing them foward by commenting on them is an annoying habit then I'd be happy to stop

BedScien wrote:

G S P Freak wrote:

BedScien wrote:That sucks meat

Really sorry to hear that you lost such an awesome pet.

Thanks for the heads up on improper pumps.

How do you do that lol ! This thread is 5 months old o.o. Idk how you even found it.

Ahahaha

My new habit of 'necro-threading'

It's because I've started to search the forum for tips and answers rather than posting straight away.

p.s. If bringing them foward by commenting on them is an annoying habit then I'd be happy to stop

Doesn't bother me . I just find it humorous for some reason (just a tad crazy I am, yes?)

ah cool me too

Ive been doing alot of digging to. Reading every post 5+ pages back. I like the "necro-threading".

This might be a good time to express that the 'search' function on this forum is awesome!

It's so easy to use and I've always found the advanced search options I've wanted. I especially like the ability to search within a search.

(yes i am a nerd)