I post this story for two reasons: First and foremost, as a lesson to anyone who owns, is considering owning, or will own fish that are known to jump. Second, for humorous/entertainment purposes.
Over the weekend my LED strip fizzled out on me. Found out salt creep made it's way into the switch and ruined it. Throughout this troubleshooting process I had to remove the hoods from my tank, leaving the top exposed.
I already knew Gobies can be jumpers, but my tank is fairly deep and I have yet to see him venture higher than about 6 inches from his caves. So, I figured one night without the hoods wouldn't hurt anything, so I left them off, planning on ordering new lights the next day.
The next day I ended up repairing the light and reinstalled it with the hoods. Wooo!! Saved some $$$.
I pull the door to my sump open to check water levels and operation and to my astonishment, THERE'S RALPH, my Gold Spotted Goby swimming around in an empty chamber of my sump that used to be used for a skimmer! I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing because I couldn't figure out how he could have possibly gotten in there.
He can't swim through the overflow, as the slots are far too small. He can't swim through the pump, for obvious reasons.
After about 10-15 minutes of looking around the tank I could come to only one conclusion:
He jumped out, was lucky enough to have hit one of the PVC pipes in the back, which ricochet'd him into the sump. I assume he bounched off of the pipe because of the wires that would have obstructed his ability to flop from the floor into the sump. I suppose it's possible, but an even farther stretch then what I already think happened (which is a stretch in and of itself).
You can view his journey in the pic below.
Lesson? Never leave a suicidal fish with a way to finish the job.
Jk jk jk...but I seriously underestimated this guy.
Over the weekend my LED strip fizzled out on me. Found out salt creep made it's way into the switch and ruined it. Throughout this troubleshooting process I had to remove the hoods from my tank, leaving the top exposed.
I already knew Gobies can be jumpers, but my tank is fairly deep and I have yet to see him venture higher than about 6 inches from his caves. So, I figured one night without the hoods wouldn't hurt anything, so I left them off, planning on ordering new lights the next day.
The next day I ended up repairing the light and reinstalled it with the hoods. Wooo!! Saved some $$$.
I pull the door to my sump open to check water levels and operation and to my astonishment, THERE'S RALPH, my Gold Spotted Goby swimming around in an empty chamber of my sump that used to be used for a skimmer! I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing because I couldn't figure out how he could have possibly gotten in there.
He can't swim through the overflow, as the slots are far too small. He can't swim through the pump, for obvious reasons.
After about 10-15 minutes of looking around the tank I could come to only one conclusion:
He jumped out, was lucky enough to have hit one of the PVC pipes in the back, which ricochet'd him into the sump. I assume he bounched off of the pipe because of the wires that would have obstructed his ability to flop from the floor into the sump. I suppose it's possible, but an even farther stretch then what I already think happened (which is a stretch in and of itself).
You can view his journey in the pic below.
Lesson? Never leave a suicidal fish with a way to finish the job.
Jk jk jk...but I seriously underestimated this guy.
