My first jumper

[Nepherael]

I've read the stories about fish jumping and being found shortly after all dried up. Know what I thought when reading that? Pssh yeah right, I'll never see it happen in my life. Not quite. I found my first jumper today. She was a Dalmatian Molly that was pregnant, we had actually gotten her fairly recently. She was there at about 6 this morning and I noticed her gone at 10. My girlfriend found her at about 330.

It's pretty upsetting. I don't get why a fish would do that. I only have two inches of space in the back of the tank and most of that is covered with about an inch of equipment so it seems she really had to aim.

I've since covered most of it but I still feel pretty bad.

On the plus side. New filter comes tomorrow and that puts us on the road to having my girlfriends 55g setup. It will seed in my tank and then when we are ready to move it I will be ordering the same filter to put on my tank again because it really needs a bit more filtration.

 

[platytudes]

Sometimes fish do jump out because conditions are horrible, but I doubt that's the case in your situation. Something could have startled her, or she could have been fleeing another fish. I prefer not to cover aquariums so tightly, it seems healthy for them to breathe. I have had a few jumpers, but not too many...one of them, a Florida flag fish, actually jumped out to catch a bug, my cat was pawing it around. Luckily it landed on the laminate floor so it was still wet and not carpet jerky! I put it back in the tank, and it's been fine since - that was about a month ago.

Eel like fish definitely need tight covers, and there are a few others who are known "escape artists"...however for the most part, I feel like the occasional jumper is just the price I pay for having an aquarium not be completely closed, which I just don't like to do. Not only does it look bad to have to cover every opening with plastic wrap or what have you, but I just feel some evaporation (not a ton) in a *freshwater* tank is beneficial, and promotes a healthy gas exchange overall.

 

[allaboutfish]

i had a killifish jump out of a tank with eggcrate. i felt so bad bc i had it since it was a fry. i can tell his brother misses him

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[Nepherael]

I agree with your sentiments completely platy. My girlfriend mentioned water quality and stress which I believe neither contributed to it (I did double check levels and they were all where they're supposed to be). There is a possibility that a male Molly (only 1 male) was chasing her but he usually as his eyes set on our other female. I think some fish just feel like they can jump and it isn't too big of a deal. They all live on large bodies of water generally. But yeah, could be anything. Just sucked

I just put on the plastic things that are supposed to go on the back of the glass and be cut out for equipment use but just over lapped them a bit so there is just much less room for anyone to jump but still open space

 

[nerdyrcdriver]

I agree with post #2

At one point my 10g had dual filters on it, and I cant add back the cut away part for the filter. I am thinking of putting some window screening I have over it so gas can still exchange but nothing could easily get out. It would be cool to have a big hood over the top, where there is a large air gap that fish could jump in, but wouldnt be visible other than when they splash back down.

 

[Nikita Harben]

yup totally agree with the eel thing. I had a violet goby, about 9 inches long, and i was doing water changes and moving his substrate around the bottom of the tank. The water was about 2 inches from the top, and i thought that was enough, obviously not for his head poked up right in front of me and flew out off the aquaium and onto the floor. Scared the you know what outta me

 

[JamieMonster]

Sorry for your loss. It definitely sucks to lose a fish.

 

[Jumko]

Interesting, most of my jumpers were pregnant guppies on the verge of giving birth.

 

[Ptrick125]

Sometimes fish do jump out because conditions are horrible, but I doubt that's the case in your situation. Something could have startled her, or she could have been fleeing another fish. I prefer not to cover aquariums so tightly, it seems healthy for them to breathe. I have had a few jumpers, but not too many...one of them, a Florida flag fish, actually jumped out to catch a bug, my cat was pawing it around. Luckily it landed on the laminate floor so it was still wet and not carpet jerky! I put it back in the tank, and it's been fine since - that was about a month ago.

Eel like fish definitely need tight covers, and there are a few others who are known "escape artists"...however for the most part, I feel like the occasional jumper is just the price I pay for having an aquarium not be completely closed, which I just don't like to do. Not only does it look bad to have to cover every opening with plastic wrap or what have you, but I just feel some evaporation (not a ton) in a *freshwater* tank is beneficial, and promotes a healthy gas exchange overall.

I just got 2 flagfish today... I have to be careful now.

I've only had 1 jumper, and it wasn't a fish, it was a Firebellied toad names bob, he climbe about 10 inches. I have never found him...


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[Nepherael]

Interesting, most of my jumpers were pregnant guppies on the verge of giving birth.

That's weird. I even did a kind of autopsy on my Molly (anatomy is interesting to me and I kinda wanted to see how far along the babies were) and she was pretty darn close, maybe 3-7 days away