Be honest here! Are you protecting your fish from......

[Brew12]

OctoAquatics for me as well, will use him again when the new tank comes in. Part of the agreement with the wife is no tanks without lids. She doesn't want nothing to sneak out, travel 2 flights of stairs, open our bed room door, unarm me, get past the dog, and kill her in her sleep.

Your wife saw pictures of a bobbit worm, didn't she?

 

[Rukk]

Do you have an anemone? I’ve found that clowns without anemones jump pretty often. Pretty much never if they have an anemone.

they did not at the time.

I now have two haddonis and the clowns have yet to pay them any real attention, go figure. They are currently preferring to hang out in my torch.

 

[ScottR]

I am not a fish psychologist but I wonder what is going through their little fish brains at the time, are they like "Screw it. I am out. Deuces!" and perform their best Free Willy. Because if that is the case, maybe we should just dose Prozac or other anti-depressants.

Our tanks are all really shallow compared to the ocean. But I’m sure they look up at a Kessil and think “go into the light”

 

[ReefyB]

I didn’t want one at first because most of the DIY mesh tops look cheap/unappealing, especially with rimless tanks. After losing a few fish to floor.. I ended up working with Artfully Acrylic on a custom lid which looks great. Professional and custom is definitely the way to go if you’re also concerned about looks and a good fit.

 

[scriptmonkey]

Your wife saw pictures of a bobbit worm, didn't she?

We also had 2 Brittle stars the size of a dinner plate tentacle tip to tip. Key word was had. If she saw a bobbit worm and she thought there was a chance something like that was in the tank.. the house would have been burnt down.

 

[AlexG]

I normally keep covers on my tanks. About once a week I hear a fish bouncing off the screen tops. I have already had two fish jump when the covers were off for maintenance or feeding in the last 6 months. Both times it was wrasses and both times I managed to get them back in the tank. My wife has a little 25 gallon lagoon that is open top but it only has clowns in it which have a much lower chance of jumping compared to wrasses so for now that tank will keep its open top. I am sure if I get a jumper their I will be making a top for that tank as well.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Our tank came with two glass lids that are removable.

Be careful with glass tops - they can trap heat, limit oxygen exchange and become dirty quickly, blocking light transmission. That's why most people recommend net tops.

 

[DarthSimon]

I also use Artfully Acrylic.... Very well made, and has stood up well to salt after 2 years...
https://www.clearviewlids.com/colle...uarium-lids/products/reefer-250-clearview-lid

 

[Flippers4pups]

I’ve used DIY screen tops on other tanks I’ve had in the past. Saved many a fish life!

Current system, CANOPY! I call it my “Flipper’s Wrasse Aviary”! Lol they will get spooked for no reason, go flying in there and plop back in!

 

[RJ F.]

This is so crazy. I came home tonight and found that Dre one of my snowflake clowns had jumped out. I tried to float him to check but he was a goner. Then my cleaner shrimp came and took him so I knew for sure. I came to post an RIP for Dre and the first thing I see is this poll. I feel so ****** right now. They were just starting to do their mating dance too. I guess I will buy a tank screen. Man this sucks.

 

[ESH]

Sometimes I come home and see a random salt mark on the rim of the tank, then slowly look down hoping I got home just in time lol.

Screen top is on the list. reason I haven't gotten one is the cost for a larger tank. Love the look of the acrylic ones and hope to add someday soon. I could go DIY, I did so on my 90gl and frag tank, but don't like the look for a rimless tank. So I'm Currently gambling. Fish will likely jump now that I've posted this so go figure.

 

[WVNed]

Oh I have given up. I just haven't gotten a round tuit yet.
oops

found one
Guess I will use this stuff over the egg crate this time

 

[Seminoles76]

Never had a jumper in 12 years or so of reefing so I would never consider a top. Maybe because of fish selection or maybe because I feed a ton. I’ve always had a six line or melanarus and they have never jumped. Crazy to hear of the clowns jumping. My male clown would never jump as he’s having a go daily.

 

[cracker]

Good NurseNed !
I'm more practical then into looks. A 4/5 inch length of gutter guard ,notched out for return,Ato, power chords etc. the rst I built a window frame . Drilled holes & put small zip ties for handles . Very practical fish are safe from jumping. Look? not great but that's not my focus.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

True story: I had just put a four line wrasse into my tank. They're not known jumpers, right? "Should be fine" I said. I even watched him cruising happily around the rock work for a couple minutes, no stress at all. After putting him in, I set about to build my DIY mesh screen top. Within that space of time between him going in and my top being completed, the wrasse jumped out. I didn't even hear it hit the floor, the little thing. Was about 20-30 mins. Tried to revive it with but it was a goner. Is that just my luck or what?

 

[Lostreefin]

Just got my Clearview lid from Artfully Acrylic today. I wasn't crazy about the idea of a lid, but this one is really nice.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I am not a fish psychologist but I wonder what is going through their little fish brains at the time, are they like "Screw it. I am out. Deuces!" and perform their best Free Willy. Because if that is the case, maybe we should just dose Prozac or other anti-depressants.

I'm equally not a fish psycologist but as some one else mentioned, many of the fish wee keep from water deep enough that 5-10 foot vertical maneuver won't result in them drying up. Not to mention the idea of this "Hard water" barrier, the broken disco ball of a sun and the grossly deformed dolphins that feed them instead of eat them... I think the question we should be asking is why the heck more of them don't try and leave! If I was abducted and put in a strange enclosure on some spaceship I'm pretty sure I'd be looking for a way back home!

I got the red sea DIY mesh cover for my rimless fluval evo and must say I really can't tell its there unless I'm looking down into my tank.

You don't need a lid to have nice tank, theres way to many stunning tanks out there without one to think that for a second. The question really comes down to how much you value the lives of your fish. A cover reduces the chances of fish leaving the aquarium- thats an indisputable fact. Some fish may be less inclined to leave their tanks than others and some will surely find a way out even with a cover and many people here have had fish for years in a uncovered tank (and I'm glad thats working for them) but overall a barrier of some sort increases the chances of them staying in the tank. You can choose fish that are less likely to jump, understock, keep peaceful species etc. None of that changes the fact that by having a tank without a cover you are accepting the increased risk of loosing that animal. I personally feel that the least we can do for taking these animals out of their natural habitat is to give them a life where they don't have to worry about predators, food shortages and the other forces that drive natural selection. Part of that ideal life means doing what we can to prevent them from becoming jerky which I think we can all agree is sub ideal for any of the fish we keep.

I find the label of jumpers rather misleading, with very few exceptions these animals aren't trying to jump or kill themselves, many of them are just darting for safety in the water column and its not their fault the water column we gave them is so tiny compared to what they've evolved for millions of years to live in. These animals never asked to be part of our lives which means that anything that happens to them once they are removed from their habitat is on us. At the very least we owe them an easier life than the one they were taken from and that includes protecting them and limiting the risk of their demise wherever we can.

With any luck I'll be getting my first saltwater fish sometime this week and although theres alway a chance I might end up loosing it, I'll be danged if I don't do everything in my power to give it the best life it can have- theres a lot to that but it certainly starts with keeping it in the tank. I'm not trying to say that everyone who has lost a fish should feel any worse about than they already do. We're all human and we will all make mistakes but limiting the room for human error is a great place to start. As long as you try to prevent what happened from repeating itself than you've learned a lesson and your future fish will live longer because of it.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

This is so crazy. I came home tonight and found that Dre one of my snowflake clowns had jumped out. I tried to float him to check but he was a goner. Then my cleaner shrimp came and took him so I knew for sure. I came to post an RIP for Dre and the first thing I see is this poll. I feel so ****** right now. They were just starting to do their mating dance too. I guess I will buy a tank screen. Man this sucks.

I'm sorry for your loss. It's always hard to loose an animal and even more so when its caused by a mistake that we made but we are all human and therefor we are all doomed to make mistakes, no exceptions. The key thing to focus on is what your going to do about it, if you do nothing then their life was in vein, however if your learn from and address the issue then Dre's legacy lives on in every fish that stays alive because of the changes he inspired you to make.

 

[maroun.c]

As much as i like to think i am, all my tanks are fully covered and i try my best to have perfect fit of my covers. On my 400 G the whole surface is literally sealed except for around 1/8th of an inch. Surprisingly tiny escape route my flame wrass managed to find it and spueeze through couple weeks back

 

[Sashaka]

I use eggcrate to cover the top. Easy to cut areas for cords to drop in.

I had a cleaner wrasse go rug surfing through a hole smaller than an eggcrate hole. Saddly, if a stressed fish can see a hole to escape, and they're a jumper, they're going to try to escape through it at some point, IMO.