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Protect shrimps and nano fishes from getting sucked by surface skimmer

M

maverick786us

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Columbus, GA
How do you protect your shrimps and nano fishes from being sucked by the surface skimmers? The surface skimmers that comes with stainless steel lily pipes are big enough to suck these little creatures to their apparent death.
 
hypnogogia said:
Have you tried searching the forum as this topic has been discussed frequently?
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MichaelJ

Post in thread 'Shrimp guard for Superfish HOB skimmer'

Good advice. I used to run a dedicated skimmer in my shrimp tank back in the day. I used lemon wraps around the in-take to prevent the shrimps getting caught. The surface skimmer was there mainly to reduce surface film and help a bit with surface agitation. I removed the skimmer long time ago as I just have too much frogbit and duckweed - the surface skimmer just got clogged up all the time 🙂

With my Tidal 35 HOBs - with a build-in surface skimmer that’s doing absolutely nothing as far as I can tell but still is a possible shrimp trap - I added a piece of very coarse sponge on the...

Improvising, fine, but is there some ready made product that is specifically designed for this job
 
I prefer using Oase Crystalskim skimmers in my tanks. IMO they are much safer, since there is a plastic guard that prevents fish from getting sucked in.
 
Baby shrimp are tiny so anything like sponge needs to be quite fine. I gave up with a skimmer after finding dozens of shrimp living in the bottom of my canister filter during routine maintenance!
 
I seem to remember you could buy a “skimmer” of sorts that fits onto the outlet pipe? Anyone remember the name/make of it? I wanted to try one but it didn’t fit on my outlet pipe due to the design. Maybe I should have got a different outlet?

Edit: Found it. Not sure how well this works? The idea is that it sucks in any surface film and mixes it with the aquarium water so it can be dealt with by the filter.
Relatively fish/shrimp safe? Anyone tried one?

Edit 2: No, I think it would harm all but the smallest shrimp?

IMG_3059.jpeg
 
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Thanks, I have already spent a premium for my stainless steel lily pipes so I won't be able to afford another lily pipes for that type of skimmer. I think I will but filter bags and wrap it around the skimmer
 
I had a stainless inlet with a skimmer on it. I just made a plastic plug and pushed it into the hole where the skimmer went. It’s since been replaced for a plain one though.
 
Cherry shrimps do seem to survive living inside the filter...
I've tried some course filter mesh cut to a disc, you also need to put a tie wrap on the pipe to stop it sinking when it gets partially blocked.
Only pain is that it needs cleaning twice a week.
 
Guessing it will have the same problem as my course filter media with it getting blocked..
I wonder if something like this would be better also might not need to float.

Might need some fabrication to incorporate the pipe..

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Yes I realized that those mesh were putting pressure on my filter causing air bubbles so removed it and wrapped the skimmer with filter bag net. It serves the purpose but looks lousy
 
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