My Fish Commit Suicide

[angel_lover]

So I'm doing my weekly water change today and I notice one of my fish is missing. I searched the whole tank, lifting hiding spots and everything.

Finally as a last resort I check behind the tank to see if somehow he fell out and sure enough he is dead, dried up

I don't even understand how this happened. It must have been recent cuz he still had colour.

Has this ever happened to anybody???

Now this poor festivum is all alone. He was so beautiful too. Nice and big....sigh.

 

[Amunet]

Well my fish haven't (still fairly new though to the whole hobby).. but I know my mom's fish used to jump out of her tank.
She had 2 oscars and some other fish.. and I think the oscars would jump out every once in a while.

 

[-germ-]

Poor fish!
Umm.... happy birthday?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

plenty of fish will jump, it can happen for no reason at all however there are a few things you should double check as a precaution.

water quality - if they are not happy with the water fish will sometimes try to escape

stocking - if fish are scared, bullied or cramped they will sometimes try to escape

if you would like to post some details of your tank (size, water parameters, inhabitants) we can help spot any potential problems if there are any or put your mind at ease if there aren't.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

aww! it happened to one of my white clouds once, when i had a shoal of them. i jumped behind my chest of drawers when doin a water change. it had been there for 2 hours!! (or something like that) and it still survived for another 2 weeks. its fins were dried up and most of them fell off but it still managed to swim, eat, compete with the others etc. then one morning i woke up to find it dead in some elodia. i was devastated because i thought the fish was gettin better.
do you have any gaps in your tank's lid?

 

[loachman]

Had a yoyo loach leap out of the tank. Found him a couple days later. Luckily, this is a pretty easy thing to fix with some plexiglass so it doesn't happen again.

 

[martyn413]

One of my mum's rainbow fish jumped out the tank nearly meeting its death because my mums cat got excited. I picked the fish up and chucked it back in.

Martyn

 

[lilfishie]

i had a betta jump before, luckily i was in the room and heard him jump, put him back in the tank and he lived a further 2 years

 

[angel_lover]

Well in my five years with a tank this is the first time this has happened to me.

I don't know if anything is up with my water parameters. My angel recently got some fin rot (which cleared up with no probs) so I took a water sample to the lfs and we tested it together and everything was fine.

I definatly don't think he was being bullied cuz they were the bullies...lol.

I recenlty moved in this place about two months ago and ever since the festivums had been hanging out at the bottom. They used to hang more in the middle to top and didn't hide too much. Now they are always hiding.

I also lost a clown loach since moving here and everytime I test the water it's perfect. I just don't get it

Thanks for the happy birthday germ!!

 

[laurasbetta]

i had the same thing happen to me, but it was my mom's birthday instead of mine.

i was cleaning his tank the night before and put him in a smaller container without a lid. he obviously was not happy in the smaller container, and i think he jumped out to find something bigger. he was still alive when i found him, but he didn't make it through the night and we had to bury my fish on my mom's birthday.

 

[Kairi]

i have mollies jump out of buckets all the time when i am moving them from my tank to the LFS- sadly my puppy gets to a few before i do... *shrugs* no idea if they live or not, but that's got to be terrifying! jumping out of a bucket onto the floor and suddenly this huge mouth and puppy teeth get you....

 

[cheekydevil]

This happened to me ages ago with a blue goldfish, didnt notice at first coz i had a blue carpet at the time.
Was so upset when i realised !!! Happened when doin a water change, learnt my lesson though to keep the lid closed when not watching the tank

 

[cheesy feet]

This happend to one on my discus near when i first got them.I had filled the tank up a little to much, and as it has no hood [same as now] one decided that they were going to fight and splash around with the other discus at night,i heard splashing, and then the next day i found it at the side of the tank shrivelled.Funny as it may sound i couldn't find anything to pick it up that day [for one reason or another ], and i must of forgot to pick it up.Yesterday i found it stuck to the tank cabinet part,hollow and shrivilled

 

[stargirly1208]

yeah this happened to a couple of my friends. one had a kuhli loach jump out by the filter and he found it a day later. and when my roommate was cleaning her tank she used to take out her fish (told her it's unneccessary to drain ALL the water) and her rainbow fish jumped out of the bucket and i came home to see my cat licking it!!! but he turned out to be okay which is good... good thing my cat didn't bite it!

 

[rdd1952]

All fish will jump and it doesn't take a large hole in the lid for them to get through. I lost a betta that jumped through a 1" square hole that was 3" above the water level. I also went in a Petsmart near me recently and was looking at their bettas. For some reason they have cut little triangular shaped holes (kind of like what an old beer opener used to make in can) in the lids for air. There were 2 dried up bettas laying in the rack beside empty cups.