Dead Koi in my Skimmer

[boogies1952]

Went to clean out my skimmer box and found my first Koi casualty. It was half in and half out...as if it got in the skimmer box and got stuck trying to get out. Also, could have died some other way and floated in the skimmer.

Needless to say we were very upset by this and wanted to know if others had experienced problems with skimmers and fish of any kind. Or is this just a freakish happening.

We had a lot of rain and the water level was at maximum height...might have something to do with it.

 

[Bonibelle]

If you look in the Garden Talk Forum, I have posted about finding several dead goldfish in my Savio Skimmer. I just had 2 more small fish in there the other day. I put the pump on a timer to allow it to shut down for 2 hours twice a day to allow trapped fish to easily swim out..but that didn't help. I have been emailing a Savio engineer because I am upset and really perplexed about how this is happening. I am going to put a grid in the mouth of the skimmer to prevent the larger fish from entering, but it will also hinder the performance of the filter as leaves and large debris will be stuck there.

My pond water level is also above the suggested level marked on the face plate, but I don't think that should impact the ability of the fish to find their way back out of the filter...I asked the engineer specifically about the water level and if it could cause the problems that I have experienced.

We had very bad storms last night with tons of rain so the filter is off until I can get some of the water out...the pond is definately too high right now.

I will let you know if I have luck with the grid or find out anything from Savio.
Boni

 

[Ph1ngering]

Simplest solution is to add something to the front of the skimmer. Two bars across and two bars down.. Just make sure the that the holes arn't small enough to let your sized fish in..

Something like this:

http://www.absolute-koi.com/subcat1298.html