Hi all
I just want to help make sure nobody does what i did to my oranda and fantail.

I bought a glass cleaning magnet that has a connecting cotton between the two halfs.
My bad mistake with this was to leave the magnet in the tank when i had finished with it.
My oranda and fantail both got caught in the cotton ( i think overnight ) and now have bad cuts to their fins ( which thankfully are healing well ).
My oranda has a cut dorsal fin which bends in half now
and my fantail has a white circular cut around the base of her fantail.

I never let the cotton drift about in the tank but fish actions may have pulled spare cotton in, enabling enough cotton to get entangled in.
Also magnet was left at rear of tank behind plants so i might not have seen the entanglement sooner.

In short fish buds take your magnet out it isnt worth the risk.

Martin

EEEK! I'm glad that you told me. I've had a glass cleaning magnet for quite some time now. In fact I wouldn't go without it. However at the LPS I saw them leaving their magnet in the tropical tank and thought how convenient that would be for me instead of storing it somewhere. So today I cleaned my tank and left it there......
Going to remove it now.

thanks for the head's up.

Here's something to try if you don't want a magnet with a string attached to
it. Note: never leave a magnet in the water for long periods of time, the
glue will soften and the scratchy part will fall off.



http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/produc..._id=3347&pcid1=

I bought one of these magnets awhile ago, and thought it was great. I was going to leave it in the tank at all times (thats what the package says to do, and all the LFS seem to too) but I was having troubles getting the back glass with the magnet because it was sooo close to the wall, and I dropped the part of the magnet that is on the outside of tank, and now its stuck back there for good. Reading this, im GLAD I lost the second half of the magnet... who knows WHAT could have happened. I still use the inside piece, but I have to literally stick my hands in to move it around...

Sorry to hear about your goldies. How are they doing?

hmmm...ive never tried these, I just stick my arm in and scrape it away with a razor blade.....

Do they work well on the heavy duty algae?

I, also, dropped my magnet cleaner behind my tank. Try this, tape the other magnet to a broom stick or something and poke around until it sticks to the other half!
(Magnet fishing )

Jeana

I have the floating one - but my fear is that when I drop the half that goes in the tank into the water the fish all rush over to look at it. They think it is a toy or something. Then when I bring the other half to the outside glass they really clap together quickly and hard - and all the delicate fins of a veiltail or any other portion of a fish can get smashed between the glass and the magnet. They are REALLY strong magnets. I have to swish the fish away or grab the magnet from inside the tank and set them together. I have gotten blood blisters several time from the magnets snapping together and trapping my finger between the magnet and the glass as I am grabbing it to keep the fish from it!

I guess I am just a clutz, but.........