Sorority tank owners..... Do you remove the little ladies during siphoning?

[lillyandquigly]

I'm glad, I couldn't tell you about siphoning, because I don't have a sorority, but when I do Fhil's tank, him and his tank mates, Wilda and Nanny, just stay away

[Myates]

Originally Posted by KcSaf

did you suck up a fish?

how big is the tank? if its pretty big then maybe only siphon out water in a corner where there are no fish.

Unfortunately the whole reason to siphon is to remove debris that has collected throughout the substrate of the tank- siphoning in just one spot defeats the purpose.

Surprisingly I have never had that issue with any of my fish.. but I bet I would freak if I did

I wouldn't remove them each time simply because then it could easily reset their whole pecking order, territory, etc.. may cause excess stress. If you are afraid of it happening again, I would trick them into one side of the tank.. if you have an extra set of hands available, have them throw in a few pieces of food on one side and you place in the siphon on the other. And just start vacuuming from that side.. once you start you shouldn't have to worry as you won't be bringing the end of the hose out of the substrate by much as you go along.

Glad to hear she is doing good.

[vilmarisv]

I've never had this problem in my sorority but it happens with the fry tanks.
I hold my finger over the output end of the syphon and pay a lot of attention on where the syphon is working. If somone gets too close or gets sucked, the suction is stopped immediately and I shake the syphon to get the little one back in the tank.

[MSG]

Just for these unexpected situations. Little miss sorbetti is doing fine.

I was itching to clean the tank because I've dropped at least 1000 mosquitos in that tank. So the floor is littered with presents.

I'm glad Sorbetti went through the tube and not the other girls. The tube is a little smaller than the diameter of a AAA battery so I don't know how she even fit through.

(I didn't use the gravel vac this time, I just used a 9 foot long air tube. I sort of new something wasn't right when the gravel was getting sucked up. Once the gravel started zooming by, the girls seem to get more excited and then they started to buzz around the tube like bees.)

Before I even started to clean, I was tempted to remove Sorbetti for a few days because someone is pecking patches of scales off her head.

After watching the tank last night, I think I know exactly who is responsible.

Now that's Sorbetti's in the kosher salt treatment tank with oak leaves, there's 4 girls that remain.

Sharkie looks kinda beat up too, so I'm going to take her out for some TLC time when I get home this evening. Sharkie's got a tiny sliver of dorsal fin left.

*Sigh* They certainly are entertaining bunch.

[tpocicat]

I just siphon my sorority tank once a week. My girls tend to stay away.
I once had a male get sucked up when siphoning his tank. After he just sort of floated on the top for awhile, scared me! But after about 30 minutes he was acting normal again. His fins were a little worse for wear, but I was more concerned about him at the time.