Silver Shark Killed Itself!

[Beanlekin]

So, the most bizarre thing happened today. I turned off my tank light for the night and my silver shark must've gotten a fright because he leapt out of the water, smacked into the hood and killed himself! Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and if I can do anything to stop it happening to any future fish?!

 

[KittyKat]

This is why bendy plastic covers work well.. apart from that, the only thing I can suggest is using a timer and getting your fish used to you.

 

[waterdrop]

I suspect there are some small percentage of fish in the wild that manage to hit a low-lying tree branch hard enough to kill themselves when jumping for bugs or whatever reason. We don't necessarily lower the percentages of these sorts of rare things happening just because we've brought our little environment indoors.

Interesting though, how bendable are you talking about KK? I've seen just hard clear plastic (have had a fair number of those) and I have glass now (which is also certainly common) but I've not seen soft clear drip trays, I'll have to watch for that. Can you describe them?

WD

 

[Mo1959]

Waterdrop the ones Clearseal make are pretty soft and flexible. Only really standard sizes though. They also have a little feeding hatch built in so you can still feed without having to take the tray off.

 

[KittyKat]

Waterdrop the ones Clearseal make are pretty soft and flexible. Only really standard sizes though. They also have a little feeding hatch built in so you can still feed without having to take the tray off.

These are the ones I was on about.. they are still hard, but if most fish hit it, it would be flexible enough to at least slightly bend out of the way.. basically just thin plastic, as opposed to thick plastic.

 

[raptorrex]

So, the most bizarre thing happened today. I turned off my tank light for the night and my silver shark must've gotten a fright because he leapt out of the water, smacked into the hood and killed himself! Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and if I can do anything to stop it happening to any future fish?!

its a shame, and quite unusual. fish jump all the time, sometimes out of the tank, but killing themselves doing it? is far more rare.

 

[curlyriff]

My friends silver shark did this about a month ago. He had hit the lid before but managed to swim away but another time he hit the glass spar and that was then end for him. It happens just not common.