# Fluval Spec intake slots & tiny fish



## daylily (Nov 11, 2012)

I have a Spec V with 4 Pygmy Cory. I had 3 male Endlers x Guppy in there too... but somehow 2 managed to jump out through the opening in the lid yesterday. :icon_excl They are gone. I can't find them anywhere. Noticed one missing in the morning, the other a few hours later. Water tested ok, but did large water change just in case. Cory are just fine today, and the last Endler is too. This morning, I uprooted a crypt, took out the driftwood etc trying to find them.. No bodies. Odd. They must have jumped for it. I found one that was dried up on the carpet a few weeks ago. Last week, I happened to be standing near the tank and heard a tiny thud and it was an Endler hitting the carpet. Scooped him up, put him back and he seemed ok... But he is now one of the missing.

Anyway...

I have 6 little rasboras in my 15 gallon with neons. I am considering trying to catch the rasboras to put in the Spec, and put the one remaining Endler in the 15. I don't know which rasboras they are. Sold to me as chili rasbora, but the guy said they aren't. They look like they have an explanation point on their side, with the dot on the tail. 

How, exactly I will catch them...? They do swim up to me when I come up to the tank, so maybe there is a chance. If not, I could buy a few more.

Have any of you with rasboras in a Spec had any issues with them getting caught in the slots going into the filter? I don't want to try to move them if they will die or be injured going through the slots. Because I had a betta in here (now in another Spec) the filter is set to Low, and I have the out flow baffled, so current is reduced.
Thanks!


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## tekkguy (Jan 3, 2013)

Put a piece of plastic craft mesh over the intake slots. Put it on the tank side, and just tie it on with fishing line. You'll need to turn the pump up a little higher, because it will cut down the flow a bit more. Also make sure you have the bottom intake covered well to keep small fish out of it.


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## STS_1OO (Nov 28, 2012)

I have the Spec V as well. I also have pygmy corys but also cherry shrimp. I was actually thinking of putting chili rasboras for a schooling fish but I don't know where to get any - and they're pretty expensive. 

Tekkguy, won't covering the upper slots and the one lower slot prevent water from getting to the filter? Water can't flow over the top of the tank area and into the sump area bc the height is essentially flush with the tank's perimeter edge. 

I have noticed though, that the tiniest of particles seem to manage to get through my filtration system which includes polyfill - which normally does an excellent job at filtering such parts. I'm beginning to suspect that the pump is only siphoning water through the small slit near the bottom and not the grated area at the top (which is where my poly fill is). Maybe I should just plug the bottom slit?


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## daylily (Nov 11, 2012)

When I had the betta in the tank, I tried blocking off the slots with a very thin piece of filter sponge and the water level dropped way down where the filter sponge is. So, I took that off. He liked to sleep stuck to the slots and was tearing his fins. If I used some sort of craft mesh, I think it would have to be really fine to keep chili rasbora - or whatever tiny rasboras I have - from going through it. 

I think there is pretty good flow going from the tank through the slots into the filter, even with the pump on the Low setting. All the loose pieces of foliage that come off the plants end up stuck to the slots, or going through the slots and I find it sitting on the top of the filter sponge. I tried growing red root floaters and they were always being sucked in. 

I just did the water change in the larger tank where the rasboras are - Don't think I will be catching them. :icon_roll I guess that was pretty naive of me to think I could in a heavily planted tank. Crafty little guys. All friendly and fun and up to the glass till I brought the net into the room then, ZOOM  What rasboras? I don't see any rasboras! 

So I moved a half dozen of the small cherry shrimp females in there to have something to watch, and since an Oto was hanging on the glass, grabbed him too, since I've a little bit of diatom in there. He can clean that up and then if he's acting stressed, I'll move him back to the bigger tank. 

I've heard the shrimp can move back and forth in the slots between tank and filter without a problem - so we will see.

I have been looking up what fish I can put in there other than a betta with the pygmy corys. CPDs are pretty, but I'd need a school and they sound shy. I read that a dwarf honey gourami might go after the corys. 

Would Harlequin Rasbora be big enough not to go through the slots, yet a good size for the 5 gal? The Endlers didn't have a problem being sucked into the slots - well, as far as I know.... I did take the filter out and search for the two missing ones in there and didn't find them.

If I could come up with something to cover the lid's opening that would not block the light, I might get more Endlers if I can't come up with something else. I tried plastic wrap (kitchen) but to much moisture condensed on it.


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## tekkguy (Jan 3, 2013)

STS_1OO said:


> Tekkguy, won't covering the upper slots and the one lower slot prevent water from getting to the filter? Water can't flow over the top of the tank area and into the sump area bc the height is essentially flush with the tank's perimeter edge.


No. The craft mesh will decrease the amount of water entering the filter media chamber, but it won't prevent it unless it gets clogged. That's part of why I say to attach it with fishing line, so you can remove it. Even better, attach it with fishing line only at the top, so it can be flipped up out of the tank to be cleaned off when necessary without detaching.

Because it will decrease the flow, if you have the pump baffled or turned down, you'd need to turn it up or reduce the baffling, since the mesh is essentially a baffle itself.


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## difrent7 (Nov 24, 2012)

I have a Spec V originally when I purchased two endler one jumped out and the other one jumped into the pump area. It was such a pain in the butt to fish him out, it probably took me a hour. Anyways the endler is in the tank with a couple neon tetra and cherry shrimp and I havent had any sort of jumping since the first day when I got the endlers. They should calm down over time.


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## umdterps96 (Oct 21, 2010)

pull the sponge up to block the slots...it will still filter..


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## SueD (Nov 20, 2010)

I added more sponge to the top to block the vents. 

I have hasbrosus cories and 9 rasboras urophthalmoides (exclamation points), along with 2 otos and a couple of small amanos. My LFS had tried to order me chilis but they ended up with the rasboras urophthalmoides. These are great also. Very active and schooling a lot of the time mid to upper level of the tank. 

A couple of weeks ago during a water change I found one of the rasboras stuck to the side of the black sponge when i had it in the bucket to rinse - no idea how he got there. Fortunately he hadn't been there long and he swam off the sponge in the bucket. I now count them every day just in case but no one has gone missing since then.


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## umdterps96 (Oct 21, 2010)

rasboras are jumpers...keep the lid on...


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## daylily (Nov 11, 2012)

The Endlers had been in there almost 2 months without a problem. They were always sparring and that's why I wanted them out of the other tank, the one I look at all the time. Their constant frantic movements were driving me half crazy - not relaxing to watch! Pretty fish, but man! I'm wondering if they just were not watching what they were doing and out they went. The remaining one was the smallest and though he tried to spar the other males - they really paid him no attention at all, so he was always off to the side.

Sue, I think you have the same Rasbora I do. Thanks to your name, I looked them up and they sure look like mine. Not red like the true Chili Rasbora i saw at a fish club member's place. Markings look just the same.

tekkguy - so it sounds like when I covered up the slots with the thin sponge (I used thread to attach) I should have removed the small piece of sponge from over the filter out put and that would have solved my water level problem. I had not thought of that!

difrent7 = How do the neons seem to do in the Spec V? I've heard they need a bigger tank. I have a dozen of those - I could try a few in the V. 3? 4? They have been great about leaving all the shrimp and cory alone. At first, I had male cherry barbs in the larger tank, and they pestered the cory something awful.


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