Strange Occurences

[jahouli]

Don't know if my fish had hatched a slightly narrow sighted plan of escape but within the space of a week I've had three fish jump out of my tank.

First my bluecheek goby jumped into the filter compartments in the middle of the day - I found him two days later alive and well.

Next my Jawfish (Jabba) jumped right out in the middle of the night (he did alot of jumping when we first got him a year ago - but that settled when his burrow was constructed - actually he was in the middle of renovating his burrow - so this may be the reason). Luckily my tank is in the bedroom so the shower of water I got sprayed in woke me up, and he got rescued immediately. He's completely unscathed.

Thirdly - the one I'm most shocked and upset about is my Mandarin fish (li-mu-bi). He was always quite shy so it was quite normal to see him only once every few days. After not seeing him for a couple of days, I started to suspect my green brittlestar had eaten him. I searched for him everywhere but couldn't find him. A couple of days later my boyfriend announced he'd found him, and showed me this dried up little fish in the palm of his hand. Poor thing! I just found it so bizarre though - since when do Mandarin fish jump? I've seen him feed from the surface before but never jump.

I've had the tank a year, and nothing like this has happened before. What's going on?

 

[kj23502]

I don't know...but it sounds like a glass cover is in order

Sorry to hear about your loss. A mandarin is one of my must haves when I set up my sw and I can't imagine lossing it

 

[connorsbala]

If you read in articles and stuff on the net, you'll find that mandarins usually jump

 

[Colin_T]

you might have a mantis shrimp or crab hunting things during the night. The fish are jumping out trying to escape from it.
It can also be if the lights are turned out too quickly. If you turn the tank lights out and the room lights are out as well, the tank goes from complete light to complete dark in an instance. This can startle or spook some fish. It is best to have the room lights on, then turn the tank lights off. 15-30 minutes later turn the room lights off.
In the morning do the opposite, turn the room lights on for 15-30minutes. Then turn the tank lights on.
A coverglass will also help prevent unwanted escapes and reduce evaporation keeping the salinity more stabile.

 

[jahouli]

Thanks. I'd never heard of Mandarins jumping before.

I did invest in some moon lights some time ago which seemed to stop my jawfish jumping, evidently not well enough.

I think the culprit is probably my big electric blue hermt crab.

Not sure about a cover glass though - it's just not gonna fit properly on my tank. Think I'll fashion some kind of net to put over it at night.

 

[kj23502]

I've heard of some people cutting egg crate to fit their tank... just thought. It's cheap too!

 

[fergalthefish]

be careful making a net, if any more fish decide to jump they may get caught in it and die that way!! not nice