birchir warning!

[scott67892002]

so i'm at work today and get a phone call from my flat mate sounding very paniced! he'd had his breakfast and bent over by my 180l tank to pick up some washing, my birchir "Don" went mad swiming around the tank and hitting the glass he then flew out through the top of the tank hitting my mate on the arm! bearing in mind the lid was closed thats a pretty impresive jump! my flat mate franticly looked around for the net and when he put it down next to don he just wiggeled into it as if to say put me back then! i knew they are good escape artists but i didn't think he'd do that! so now in keeping a plat on my tank so he can't do it again. i'm just glad my flat mate was at home!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Sorry to hear about that, is the fish ok?

 

[scott67892002]

year he seems fine!

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Woah! Nutter fish alert.
Glad he's ok tho. I still want some.
Hugs,
P.

 

[Synirr]

Woah, very lucky someone was there to save him! My bichir has made so such daring attempts at escape... all he does is bump blindly into the African butterfly at night and cause it to jump

 

[Fruitbat]

This isn't particularly uncommon, actually. When startled, some bichirs seem to go through a 'mad minute' and swim wildly around the aquarium. A good-sized bichir is easily capable of pushing an aquarium lid around to the point where it will jump out of the water. That's why all of my tanks containing medium- to large-sized bichirs have extra weight on the glass tops.

Glad to hear that your bichir seems to be unaffected by its terrestrial adventure.

-Joe

 

[scott67892002]

he did it once before but that was when i was cleaning the tank. hope my plant keeps him in in future!

 

[Fruitbat]

Um.....you DO have that tank covered completely, don't you?? A layer of floating plants just isn't going to do it for a bichir.

-Joe

 

[beblondie]

Plants will only help the bichir feel secure.You really need to seal any openings and weight the lid.I had a jumper my fault forgot to close the lid she went a good 2 1/2
feet up in the air(measued where she hit the wall) and she easily could have gone
4-5 feet in distance.theres a lot of propulsive power in that body-Anne

 

[scott67892002]

no i meant i'm keeping a house hold plant in a pot on the lid to keep it down!

 

[Mondego]

i hear a lot of stories like this.

i use to keep teh lid open on my cover over my tank a lot. mine's never tried to escape. he must be at least 8 inches by now. when i got him he was like 4 inches. i'll go to work, or go to bed, leaving the lid open with no worries. just today, the lid was open all day because i forgot to close it when i left. i only keep it closed now to keep water from evaporating out. it'll loose many pounds of weight in water alone every week if i don't keep it closed. i have had him since january.

i do know they're powerful though. i had a bastard of a time trying to move him from one tank to another. i don't ever want to have to go through that again.