Sorority dare devil! Almost lost her 3 times now because of this weird habit.

[Brian10962001]

So I have a female in my sorority who is INSANE. When I first built the tank she managed to wedge herself between a piece of pottery and a rock and was stuck. I could see her because it was in the front of the tank so I moved the pottery piece and freed her. Well last week I did a head count and I was down to 6! I looked all over the ground, behind the dresser, everywhere thinking she had jumped out. Then I remembered her getting wedged so I started pulling decorations. She came scrambling to the top and took a big breathe, she was yet again stuck under some rocks. Her fins were pretty worn out but she was perky and lively so I let her be. The other girls didn't bother her and most of her fins grew back in about a week. Jump forward to yesterday and I was showing the plant growth to a friend when guess what, 6 girls! I didn't even panic this time I just said "she's stuck somewhere" and sure enough I saw a tail sticking up, I thought she was dead for sure NOPE she was just nose down wedged between the glass and rocks. I tapped the glass and she worked herself deeper, I actually had to remove a few stones to free her. I put her in isolation because she yet again shredded her fin trying to get free. She's not scratching on the rocks, I think she's chasing food bits down and getting wedged! She's in isolation now with 1/2 TSP of salt to help her heal up. I'm planning on some smaller gravel to hopefully fill the gaps but man, what a headache!

[purplemuffin]

lol..what a pain in the butt. I would put this girl in a tank that was safe from her getting 'stuck anywhere' just to avoid the hassle hahaha! I keep hearing of girls doing this, or diving into the filter or something crazy.

[Brian10962001]

I have one girl in there that may be a Plakat, she really grew into her tail (body got way bigger, tail didn't!). She will jump inches out of the water or halfway across the tank every time she grabs a piece of food. The sad thing is this one isn't the alpha, I have a massive yellowish female who's always eggy that will grab onto one of the girls fins and just hold them, none of them dare step to her LOL. This sorority tank is the neatest fish tank I've ever owned! The dynamic of the girls is great, and whenever I re arrange things the way they all explore is just awesome. The good news is I have two giant females and a 3 way divided 10 gallon. I was going to get a new male for the third section, but the way it's looking I'm just going to go Walstad with that tank and give Dare Devil a section of it.

[steftravels]

My fish was doing the same thing right away. Kinda scared me. He burrowed under these giantic rock crystals. I have no idea how he would manage to even lift them up. I got worried, so I spent time picking out all the crystals. He can't have them back, unless I determine he won't do that anymore.

[EmmaliLucia]

So I had similar problems to what you're experiencing, and this may or may not be a horrible idea but I took out all of the gravel and heavy rocks and replaced them with these little acrylic crystal looking rocks that are ridiculously light:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=3579444

Then I got them real plants that just float around and don't need to be anchored to anything. Then i got a bunch of fake silk plants that suction-cup to the bottom of your tank (I can't remember if I got them at PetCo or PetSmart so I didn't find a link to them, but they are really nifty!) and then I finished off with plenty of decorations that they can hide under or in:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2752217
and
http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=4368172

are my personal faves because there is really nothing that they can wedge under and get stuck.