Burningbaal Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Hello all, I walked by the tank this evening and saw what looked like my sand sifting star (which has been exploring out of the sand a lot lately) looking like it was on an old pump. This pump is ancient, no brand, no nothing. It's a stream-style outlet, not like modern circ pumps, more like a maxijet. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the star was partially inside the pump. the main intake has a screen, but there's a second little spot I've noticed before and sure enough, he got in there. in fact, it got almost all of two arms in that little hole (and they were on opposite sides of the body, not neighbor-arms), and a third was partially in. the poor guy was bent in half over his back. I moved the pump around enough to see that he did still react to his environment so I went to work. I've been thinking of replacing the pump anyways, and if it's going to trap my livestock, I don't want it. so I took to disassembling the pump around him while holding it in a bowl of tank water on the table. eventually, it popped free, along with gross amounts of detritus (probably why he went looking in the pump), so we got a second bowl with fresh tank water and he's sitting in there for a few, straightening out his battered arms. I'll temperature acclimate him here after about 25 minutes and let him go...here's hoping for the best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 saw the star this morning, it was about 12" away from where I last saw it last night, and it was in the process of burying itself again. looks like he might make it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberlee Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 that's great news. Power heads make me nervous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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