Poor little fishy......

jenratico

jenratico

Jen
Apr 8, 2008
176
0
0
Denver, CO
So my plan was to get a few more upside-down catfish to keep my loner UD cat (Howard) company soon, but apparently he chouldn't wait, and jumped out of the tank where the HOB filter comes in. I was searching the tank for him yesterday when he didn't come out of hiding for supper, and found him on the carpet, very dead.

He was such a cool fish. I loved watching him cruise around the tank. He was getting braver since I rehomed the more aggressive tank mates.

Has anyone else had jumpers? I will definately work on some tighter fittings around the filter. It's so sad. I feel like such an awful fish momma - I could have prevented it if I had been more careful.

Rest in peace Howard.
 
:( sorry.
we all make mistakes.
ive never had a jumper, but i have a simple DIY canopy that i made and there are some spots my betta could jump out of in the back near the HOBs if he was determined enough. i will learn from this and fix it soon.
im sure if you knew he would jump out you wouldve sealed it up very tight, but you didnt know. it wasnt really your fault.
RIP fish
 
Tough luck! Hope you can get a tighter cover and get some more.
 
Almost all my tanks are half-uncovered and I've never had a problem with jumpers... until the other day. On the ONE tank I have that is fully covered, my 4" purple spotted gurdgeon took a leap out the filter hole. Bummer.

RIP Howard.
 
Sorry about Howard <3

I thought that happened to me Tuesday morning- I came downstairs to leave for work and my fish tank hood was wide open...I have an Elephant Nose in there and they are known to jump...as a matter of fact, he was in my 15 gallon when I first got him, and I would WATCH him try to jump out at night (there was a screen net over every opening though, so he kept crashing into it...). So anyway, the first thing I did was run over to the tank and look all over the floor, behind it and everything...and I couldn't find him...then I see his little "tail" sticking out of his cave "wagging". I was so0o0o happy!!! He must love his new home...cause he obviously didn't like the 15!
 
Bad luck... sorry for your loss. I've had a few jumpers from ponds (mainly chub Leuciscus cephalus and dace Leuciscus leuciscus) but never from an aquarium, but I did lose a bristlenose that didn't jump but climbed over 4" out of its tank. The other 3 have given me a headache 6 months later in producing several hundred fry though!
 
Well I've done the best I can think of for now to tighten up the back of my tank - I use a glass top, so I got a new plastic strip for the back and actually traced the HOB intrusion onto it before cutting it, so it sits right up to it. I can't see how anyone could get out now without swimming up the waterfall (I leave about a 1 1/2 - 2 inch fall) into the filter itself. I'm thinking about how I could address that by covering the HOB with pantyhose or something.....

Anyway, hopefully this will be lesson learned and neither I or my fish shall ever suffer the pangs of a jumper again.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone.
 
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