Black Nasty kills another filter.

My Black Nasty has killed another canister, her second. She keeps dumping sand in the intakes. I've tried foam sleeves but she destroys the sleeves and then fills the intake with sand. I tried screens over the intake and she pulls the intake end off and then fills with sand. I'm going to try a settling container on the intake hose, I,ll hook an old canister body inline in the intake side and hope the volume will slow the flow and the sand will settle out to be emptied a couple times a week. She is a gorgeous fish but vicious and destructive. She attacks anything in the tank...Cleaning tools, my hands (ouch), and loves to attack the cat while he watches her through the glass.
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What kind of fish is " Black Nasty?"

nandopsis haitiensis cousin of the cuban cichlid 10x as mean

Oh wow; good luck! That's amusing behavior... my fish don't have anywhere near the brain-power to pull something like that off

They really are not "nasty", just misunderstood.

They really are stunning when big:
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Not my picture, its from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

By far one of the most lovable fish.imo

I really like the Nasty, it is my 4 year old's first fish, she does all the feeding and "helps" clean the tank. The Nasty has a good set of teeth and draws blood on most water changes. she is about 6-7" now and growing fast. Anyone have a male Haitian ? I'd love to try to get some fry. she lays eggs about once a month. I just wish she could share the tank with anything living but she is sure death on everything including snails and plecos....the pleco survived and grew the fins back.She is a great fish to watch as she flares at any movement in the room. she will attack a ping pong ball till she crushes it. she can be black as coal , salt and pepper or almost white depending on mood. she will get a 4' 125 when we get moved early next month, we are moving to Pomeroy WA as soon as the house is done.

Good luck!It is really hard to get them to pair off with another adult...usually have to be raised in groups i have been told.I can see you losing her or a lot of males.

My haps would spit gravel all over the place and it kept stopping my HOB filter blades. Swapped them to a sump style tank and the sand/gravel never gets that high near the intake.

yea, that is what I thought. So she will live alone. I'll keep trying different intake strategies till I work out her sand issues.

take a small fish net cut it out and rubber band the mesh around the intake.It is what i do to keep my geo and jack from become filter jammers

I have a male but he's probably just a bit over 3". I spawned my pair once (very young) and then the female just pulled one of those mystery deaths this species is famous for. Mine also digs all day, piles of sand everywhere.

ACWO do you test water in your area they need exact params high oxygen levels no tempature swing at all.I wish i could keep one the whole nandopsis genus is beautiful.

Do I test my water?

I'll quote Mo Devlin, whom I recently talked to about this species... "I've never had a hait that didn't end with bloat."

His old male:
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Never had a bloat problem if you feed a low protein food like cichlid excell. most bloat probs are when they are small

Protein probably has little to do with bloat. Here's a good read:

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And really, Aquamojo is the one who said it. I know very few people who have managed to grow out haitiensis to that size. Things can be going great, and then something changes, such as a seasonal fluctuation in your tap water, moving a fish like you mentioned you'll be doing soon, etc.

Anyway, it's unfortunate this species is rather sensitive. You have a beautiful female and I hope you can solve your filter intake issues.

well Mo definitely knows his stuff, but I've had no issues in the 8 months I've had it...Like all the other tanks it gets 2 30% changes a week and has a 2217 ehiem and 2 AC 70s on it. fish is growing like a weed and is mean as all get out. It will be up to Madness after Saturday though.

I'm a little late to reading this post, but if you haven't solved the problem you can try a pre filter for the larger Aquaclear powerhead. It a plastic cage that can be easily adapted to an intake and you can use it with or without the fabric sleeve inside.