[AquaticLife] Snail snafu
I think something was wrong with that snail… if it actually got stuck on the intake.. or maybe it was just trying to clean the inside of the strainer and got part of it’s foot caught.. like getting a finger caught in a crack and then it started to panic and got sick as a result of the stress.
I had two powerful filter systems on my tank when I had Mystery Snails (a 350GPH and a 200GPH) and they would crawl all over the intake tubes and even the filter intake strainer with no problems. I also see much smaller snails crawling around on the intake tube with no problems. A healthy fish or any other critter should not get sucked against a filter intake strainer. When this happens to a fish, it usually means the fish was already sick or weakened from something else. Now fry would certainly be at more risk since they can’t swim as well, but healthy adult fish should not be affected at all… nor should snails or other healthy critters.
Watch your filter intake some times. While it is certainly sucking in a lot of water, it’s not nearly as strong of a suction as you might think. I regularly see a piece of detritus (small piece of leaf or poop) float by the intake within an inch or closer to the intake and not get sucked in. I’ve also seen a single blade of anacharis leaf get sucked onto the intake and just sit there, not getting sucked in through the slightly smaller strainer opening… same with a piece of fish poop.
Now, if something was able to cover all of the slots on the intake screen, like if the snail had a large enough foot to envelope the entire strainer, that might create enough suction to cause a problem… think about putting your hand near a vacuum cleaner hose and feeling the air flow by.. no big deal… and then putting your hand over the entire opening and the amount of suction that then occurs… big difference…. like the teens who would give themselves hickeys with vacuum cleaners back in the day. Did anyone ever fall for them perfectly round hickeys? LOL
OK.. back to fish. Certainly, if you have really small fish, potential for fry in the tank or a sick fish, putting a sponge or other protection over the intake (I use a small pore filter media bag on the intake of my AC-20 on my Cherry Shrimp tank since the cherry shrimp fry are so small) would help but there are millions of people running filters on their tanks without a problem so when something happens, it’s usually a result of the fish or critter being sick first, not the filter system causing enough suction to cause a problem.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com (Links to any articles referenced in above reply are listed on the right side, alphabetically under Labels and also under Archives by Year, Month)
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
