Last night I came home from work and went to check on my "other family" as my wife likes to say. Oops, water level way too high in the main tank. One of the standpipes is definately blocked. I close off the air intakes which clears out the blockage - probably Valonia which grows in my overflow (I harvest it once in a while for my Naso who loves the stuff) and decide to give the overflow and standpipes a thorough cleaning after the kids are in bed.
A couple hours later I shut everything down, get up on a stepstool to really get at the overflow, peer in with a flashlight to see what's growing / swimming in there, and can't believe what I see. A fish is staring back at me. Double take. Check the main tank for the coral beauty (still there) which is the only other fish I have that size. Call my wife over because I still can't believe it. Definately a fish. A fish I never purchased. I spent the next 2 hours trying to get it out of the overflow. It loved the flake I dropped on the top but retreated down and hid behind the returns every time I tried to net or trap it.
My questions:
1) Other than elves the only way it could have gotten in was hitchhiking. Has anyone else ever heard of this? Hard to id the fish in the overflow - it looks like some sort of damsel. Within the last year I have thoroughly cleaned and siphoned out the overflow (it was dry) and tried different standpipe designs to reduce the noise. During those experiments anything living in the overflow took the 15 foot rollercoaster ride down to the basement sump. So, this had to be w/in the last 12 months.
2) Any suggestions on getting it out? Netting seems nearly impossible. A trap might work however I have to shut down the pumps and remove the standpipes to give me enough working space, which means at most a couple hours per session.
Any help would be appreciated. Given this guys pluck I would really love to get him in the main tank.
-Scott
A couple hours later I shut everything down, get up on a stepstool to really get at the overflow, peer in with a flashlight to see what's growing / swimming in there, and can't believe what I see. A fish is staring back at me. Double take. Check the main tank for the coral beauty (still there) which is the only other fish I have that size. Call my wife over because I still can't believe it. Definately a fish. A fish I never purchased. I spent the next 2 hours trying to get it out of the overflow. It loved the flake I dropped on the top but retreated down and hid behind the returns every time I tried to net or trap it.
My questions:
1) Other than elves the only way it could have gotten in was hitchhiking. Has anyone else ever heard of this? Hard to id the fish in the overflow - it looks like some sort of damsel. Within the last year I have thoroughly cleaned and siphoned out the overflow (it was dry) and tried different standpipe designs to reduce the noise. During those experiments anything living in the overflow took the 15 foot rollercoaster ride down to the basement sump. So, this had to be w/in the last 12 months.
2) Any suggestions on getting it out? Netting seems nearly impossible. A trap might work however I have to shut down the pumps and remove the standpipes to give me enough working space, which means at most a couple hours per session.
Any help would be appreciated. Given this guys pluck I would really love to get him in the main tank.
-Scott
