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This morning I went to feed my fish and could not find my blue dwarf gourmari any place in the tank (10 gallon). I picked up the artificial sea shell and there he was pinned inside the shell unable to get out. Last night I had fed the rubbernose plecos some vegies pellets, one pellet had gotten under the shell apparently - but there was no sign of it when I found him. I don't even know how he was able to get under it, but there he was - dead and wedged so tightly in the shell that I had to take a tooth pick to pry his tail out of the crevice in the opening to pull him out - his head caught in the interior of the shell!
I had had him over a year, a real sweetheart who did not bother anyone else in the tank. I don't know if I will get another one or not, right now. The shell however, is going in the trash....
I got the shell at PetSmart, so be careful if you have one like this in your tank. It had been in the tank for several months with incident, until now!

So sad to hear that one of your favourite fish died.


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I'm so sorry for your loss. I have an opaline gourami and she's my favorite fish in the tank. I would be devastated if I lost her. Thanks for the warning on the sea shell. I hope you find another gourami that will be as nice a fish as the one you lost.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

sorry to hear that...get another one

First get rid of that shell and get another Gourami.

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Keith

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I appreciate your replys. I miss my fish - he was my favorite. He had a cute way of coming to the front of the tank to say hi, sort of had a cute little smile - if you could say fish smile.
I put the shell in the trash. It was so weird how he got stuck. I had moved it over last night, since the pellet had gone under it, so it would be flat on the gravel. He must have pushed it up with his head to have gotten under it, and it was still flat and not knocked over when I found him. I was horrified when I found him that way - what a terrible way to go!
I might get another, but I need to get over the shock of this one first. I once had a male betta that got his head stuck in the rocks I had for decoration in his bowl. I felt bad that it happened and now only use small rocks or marbles, but this was totally unexpected.
I don't think PetsMart sells the artificial sea shells anymore - perhaps there was a reason?
Thanks!

Fish can get stuck in just about anything. I lost a ram to getting stuck in a crack in a cave that was so small there was absolutely no way that ram could have swam through it. I have no idea why he tried to go through that in the first place. The inside of the cave wasn't even big enough for him to sit. It's my little cory cave that 1-2 pandas can sit in. There's a 2nd cave right next to it that's 10 times as big. Then I had a gourami get stuck in the carbo plus setup which is a carbon bar sitting in a metal plate. Somehow it got between teh carbon bar and the metal plate. The metal was even bent a little from the fish trying to force itself through. My 3rd fish was a panda cory who got stuck in the shell of a dead applesnail that died right in front of the cory cave. If I got rid of anything a fish could get stuck in my tank would be bare. I even had to free a small gourami from a thick stand of clover growing on the bottom of the tank. I've never had a fish get stuck in the same place twice and all of those places were obviously far too small for even the narrowest part of the fish to fit in comfortably.