One of the saddest things are fish jumping to their death...

[Sudaien]

One of the worst things in this hobby is fish jumping to their death. I believe it has happened to most of us and to me it's probably the worst thing besides a total tank crash and loss. Let's talk about it today.

1. About how many fish have you had jump to their death in your reefing career?

2. What measures do you take to make sure your fish don't jump out of the tank?


tank cover image via @Poseidon

The worse week was a blue spirited jaw fish and two others all in same day

 

[Robert Riccio]

Currently, I have a makeshift cover until my lid arrives. It's never been a problem for me until just recently, so I decided to purchase a lid from ClearView Lids. It is totally custom to meet my needs. This company was very easy to work with if you are looking for a lid.

ClearView Lids - The Difference is Clear and the answer is here!

 

[hsingh]

I have a crazy lucky jumping fish story to add to this thread. The probabilities of everything that happened are so low! I should have picked lottery numbers! here it goes
Added a Naoko wrasse to my tank (added at night), next morning I saw that my cleaner wrasse was picking on him. This seemed to stop a few days later. I was working from home and went to look at the aquarium in the morning, I could see both wrasses were being model citizens. Went back to my desk, happy knowing that things were good now between the fish
At around lunch time, I decided to go down (my aquarium is in the basement) and look at the fish, remember my tank has glass covers but has a small gap where the plastic hinge has been cut to allow for more light). So as i come down the stairs, i see the wrasses fighting... the naoko's wrasse then does a jump, goes through that small gap in the cover, jumps around and lands abut 10 feet away from the tank, just before my feet! I picked it up and put it in the sump to recover. Usually when I work from home I will never go to the basement till the evening, so the probability of this happening was crazy, That gap in the hinge on the cover was less than 1/4 inch wide and 3 inch long. Me going to the basement at that time was a first, the the fish jumping and landing at my feet? no idea what probability that was.. its a story that I have wanted to share, so we decided to name the naoko's wrasse "lucky!"

The Naoko's wrasse

The cleaner wrasse

The gap in the cover

The spot where the wrasse landed

Another view showing what i saw when I stepped off the stairs. I was standing there when this all happened and the wrasse landed at my feet!

 

[WRB]

Lost a Trigger in the middle of the night on a covered tank, only opening was for the heater and PWHD cords. Also had a Niger make a leap of faith but I found him and did some fish CPR and he survived.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

Had 5 reef tanks, 3 of which have been open top (current one included). Not had a single jumper. Always kept a very light stocking of fish so they all have their bolt holes...

 

[RalphTech]

One jumped during cleaning and the other one was on the floor all dried up.

 

[Pistol Peet]

I had 2 of my favorites jump out and die a couple time I caught it and picked them up and put them back but eventually happened when I was not there. Now I do this

plus a bonus pic of something I never catch all them together they r hungry..

 

[charlesk]

I had a cleaner shrimp jump once. I have no words for that.

Strange for a shrimp. May had emotional issues.

 

[gentlefish]

Lost 2 fish with a glass cover on that came with the tank. Got a new custom one. No way out! Clearviewlids!

 

[charlesk]

Make sure your fish food SINKS


.

Now that's a fish

 

[DrEggroll]

I have had zero. I’m only a reeder since December. My 120 came with a glass lid. How much is this cutting down my light? I get a lot of water evaporating and condensing under the lid

 

[davidin513]

Tank tops alone don't stop jumping fish deaths. Recently a diamond goby decided to try jumping, and caught its gills in the netting. Netting is 1/2" spacing, and being replaced.

What a heartbreaking find this must have been... Good of you to share for people who know they have fish that can jump but don't use covers... I have a canopy and my T5 lights cover most of my tank at a low level, but I have still lost 4 fish over the last year alone to jumping out of the back of it. I never saw anything like this though - what a terrible twist of fate and against the odds since you took best precautions you knew to take. All of my jumpers were gobies and I should have known better, but I did have one clown do it too - a "designer" so of course more $$ (slept at the top against overflow like many do but I'm certain got startled since she'd made her way into my overflow a few times before). My condolences...

 

[davidin513]

Tank tops alone don't stop jumping fish deaths. Recently a diamond goby decided to try jumping, and caught its gills in the netting. Netting is 1/2" spacing, and being replaced.

What a heartbreaking find this must have been... Good of you to share for people who know they have fish that can jump but don't use covers... I have a canopy and my T5 lights cover most of my tank at a low level, but I have still lost 4 fish over the last year alone to jumping out of the back of it. I never saw anything like this though - what a terrible twist of fate and against the odds since you took best precautions you knew to take. All of my jumpers were gobies and I should have known better, but I did have one clown do it too - a "designer" so of course more $$ (slept at the top against overflow like many do but I'm certain got startled since she'd made her way into my overflow a few times before). My condolences...

 

[Noob_Sam]

I have never had a fish jump to their death. But my eel jumped out once and I got him last minute. He was legit about to die, but luckily I put him right back in And since then I always cover all corners when the light go out.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

So I've never lost a fish, but did have a large hermit crab escape. He made it out of my room and halfway through my house before my son found him and put him back.

 

[Mick51]

Just wondering about screen covers and coral.. do the tops filter out light? I wanted a blue spotted jawfish but they do tend to jump

 

[Hugh Mann]

Only one. Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse. Found the perfect, wrasse sized hole in my lid. I was gone for all of 20 minutes one day, came home and it was dead on the floor. Was quite upset. That fish was tough as nails, survived velvet, copper AND living with only 2 other fish after velvet wiped out most of my fish.

 

[Dark_Knightt]

I just had a Lubbock's wrasse jump 6 ‘ out of my tank while I was mounting new frags last week with the acrylic lid off . The Wrasse ricocheted off exercise bike and was in floor as I had one hand of super glue and a JF favia . I didn’t want to drop to quick but rushed over to bike and found fish and quickly thrown back in after looking for some time !
Anyway he survived but I had lost a few fish last year in my rimless so I actually bought a piece of acrylic to cover tank instead of net. My humidity levels were getting up there in my tank room and wanted to hold the tank evaporation down some so it’s had worked pretty good !

Love the scape! The GSP looks so fuzzy for some reason lol.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I've lost a handful but its been a few years.

A wrasse or 2
Snowflake eel
2 clowns
I'm sure there were more, but I can't remember.

Nowadays I have a screen lid that I made out of window screen bar and 1/4" clear netting

 

[>>klong<<]

"Too Many"

A clown jumped during breakfast one day. I saw two clowns in the tank, took bite of oatmeal, and looked up to see only one clown. The other was on the floor. This, two days before we were to pick up some Yasha gobies. I ordered a Clearview that day and ran to Lowes to get bird netting. I put a double layer over the tank and taped it to the sides. Clearview wait time was 60+ days.

We got the gobies a couple days later. Goby 1 jumped through the netting within 3 days. Goby 2 lasted till I got my Clearview, which I had to send back for alterations. 12 hours before the lid was returned, I found a shriveled Yasha #2 on the floor. He made it through the bird netting too. I hope I'm done with jumping fish.

Tank tops alone don't stop jumping fish deaths. Recently a diamond goby decided to try jumping, and caught its gills in the netting. Netting is 1/2" spacing, and being replaced.

Yikes! I guess I might need to replace my mesh . . .

Inappropriate Reefer used something like this on one of his lids: