Fish Keep Jumping Out Of The !&@*^ Tank!
 

Ok, speaking of throwing in the towel on this hobby, I am seriously considering.

I just lost my male clown last night to jumping and today I lost my newly added Royal Gramma to jumping. What the hell is the deal??? Could the warmer temps be causing them to jump??!

I am frustrated, I am working on the tank too much and doing too much for it to keep it running successfully and I am not seeing hardly any desirable results. I am really getting fed up... if it's not dying fish it's dying corals and if it's neither then it's an algae problem. I dunno what to do...

But if we could figure out why my fish keep jumping, that would be super. If heat is the cause, then obviously I'll have to re-think this hobby as my tank can't run in the summer. And I am not adding a chiller to a 20g tank .

The temp gets about 84-87. Sometimes a bit hotter which I know is bad, but I do my best to keep it cool.

I am officially frustrated and seriously re-thinking my tank. It's just not fair to all the fish/corals that die under my care.

Do you have the room for a slightly larger tank ?

I do.. and I was planning on upgrading this month. But I have been unsure lately.. and after today, even more unsure. Frustration is just building up and I feel I am working too much and too hard on the tank and stuff like this keeps happening, like a never ending battle with this hobby.

It's definitely not crammed in there either, if that's what your getting at by chance.. I only have 3. One stays in the sand all day, one in a frogspawn, the other in a cave.. the Gramma would have been the only active fish.

put a lid on your tank.That ussualy solves the problem.

RG's are notorious jumpers ... so are 6 line wrasses and firefish ... clowns are known to jump accasionally ... all these fish meet the size requirement so the only way to safely keep them is with maybe a eggcrate lid ( that way you dont have a temp buildup as you would with a glass top ) ... also maybe have a muffin fan blow across the top of the water to keep the temps down

Going bigger solves alot of problems as far as stability ( take it from someone that has kept very large reeftanks :wink: ) ... so the bigger you go the better

Eggcrate man. All fish have the capacity to jump. Any burst of speed in the ocean takes you to .. another spot in the ocean. That same burst of speed in a tank takes you.. out of the tank. At least if there's a lid there's nowhere for them to go but back in.

Yes, it's ugly, but .... if you have that black tracking stuff (forget the name) then it can sit inside of that and look OK. If you have bare glass then the eggcrate needs to be cut a little larger so it sits on the edges. In that case, it looks like crap, but what can you do. I have this situation myself. I don't like the look of it but to me there's no question -- no canopy == lid or no fish.

Sorry to hear of your loss. I know your pain, last year I lost my pair of fairy wrasses to jumping because the canopy was mistakingly left open overnight (I was on vacation at the time). Tanksitter came by and found the two dried fish on the floor. Some fish are more prone to jumping than others (fairy wrasses are pretty bad as it turns out), but *any* fish can jump, so definitely put a lid on that tank.

yup just do eggcrate

To keep my tank cold I put ice packs in my tank ,in a zip lock bag and drop them in the and have a fan blowing on the glass of the tank. keeps it at around 80:smile:

Another thing you can do to help cool your tank is to freeze RODI water in plastic pop or water bottles - probably for a 20g tank the 750 or 500ml bottles - and then just let it melt. It not only tops off your tank as it melts but helps to keep it cool.

You might want to think about who is making them jump.

I lost a fairy wrasse to jumping too. It managed to find the 1/2" gap between the two panels of eggcrate and ended up lying on top. It was very dried up when I found it :sad: :sad: the MHs made sure of that. So if you put the egg crate on, don't leave any gaps either.

Well, an eggcrate top is the only solution really. I knew this all along, I just found it very odd that my male clown jumped sunday evening and then found my gramma all dried up under the stand after work yesterday (new addition)

Deb, I really don't know who could be bullying, I have a Yellow Watchman Goby, he only gets territorial around his burrows, he never shows agression or chases anyone around.

The other is a solid yellow damsel, completely peaceful and skittish, I don't think it could be him?? He's not aggressive at all.

The last is a true percula, she could care less what goes in or out of that tank, so I don't think she did it.

I am quite confused. But I am going to try and get a cover today, about how much do they cost??

Eggcrate will set you back a couple bucks. You'll have to trim it to size, some pliers will work.

A couple bucks? As in literally a few bucks? Haha , the first cheap purchase in my years of reef keeping. :lol:

That's fine, I will actually be keeping it large as I'll need it for the larger tank I am setting up this month.

Thanks Tony .

How does one make the top fit tightly around powerheads and heaters/HOB skimmers and filters? Do you just cut it out accordingly?? :neutral: Will pliers work for that?

side cutter plier work great.

If you can find the light diffuser in black it looks much better (IMO) than the white. Not sure where to pickup the black as it seems not very common.

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Rona sells it.

I guess Albert should have let me buy that fish the other day.

What's this supposed to mean exactly??

Well I would imagine it was this comment that prompted it. If you knew that jumping might be a problem why did you sit back and do nothing about it? A $5 piece of eggcrate could have saved those three fish :neutral:

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That fish might still be alive today if it were in mine or someone elses better suited tank. I meant no offense.

Your tank is pretty small Scott, smaller than 20 gallons, why don't you hold off on buying anything else until you get the bigger tank? Consider that your are adding an already stressed fish to a foreign ecosystem, only to uproot it and move it again a short while later. So its gone from the ocean, to the store, to you your tank, with other possible hubs in between. That's stressful for any species of animal.

i have a piece of eggcrate here that might fit... whats the measurements of your tank? if it will work you can have it.

I totally understand your frustration. I myself cannot keep my 175gal cool enough and over the summer i have lost about 5 fish. Nothing has jumped out of the tank but my dragon wrass buried himself in the sand and I had to "dig" him out. I have tried ice packs and four liter milk jugs but nothing seems to keep a tank that size cool enough. I cannot afford a chiller. I dunno I am thinking about down sizing.

good luck with everything!!

Ok the tank is covered and there will be no more carpet surfing casualties.

The only reason I made the other comment was because the reason I started this thread was to find out what could possibly be making the fish jump so much .

Also, to note.. I haven't lost 3 fish, I lost 2. I saved the other clown. The 2 I did lose died one day apart, so I was just curious as to if heat or something else may have caused them to jump (because it was 2 deaths so soon)

Anyways.. problem is solved.

Well downsizing wont help ... however ... a fan blowing over the surface of the tank and another on the sump will keep the temps under control ... if you have even a normal household fan that would do the trick ( If you have a Princess auto they carry some powerfull compact fans as well ) ... your evaporation will go up but you will save the inhabitants of your tank :wink:

Have you thought of the possability of it being a faulty ground from a powerhead or heater ?Just a thought.

Hmm, I don't know really? How would I be able to find this out? (nothing happens when I have my arm/hand in the tank either?)

Hmm,guess its not that.

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That would make me a bit jumpy too. Scott should be used to it though.:mrgreen:

Hahah, another sucker punch. :razz:

That was my thoughts exactly. It happens to often. Ground probes are good. Your running to high temps in the tank though. Yiks! Curious how your monitor temp? With a digital or?

Crating the top is one thing, but obviously fish are jumping for a good reason.

Glad your looking to find out the reason.


Lee

It can't be a faulty ground or whatever , because if im working in the tank.. wouldn't I feel that as well???

The temp is monitored with one of those stick on thermometers.

The 2 days I had fish jump, the temp did get hot.. too hot, I openly admit I forgot to open my bedroom window on Sunday, and turned the lights on at 11am and off at around 745pm .. so they were on too long, in a hot stuffy room. On Monday... same deal, forgot to open the window, room got hot.

What I have done since then though... lights on at 7am, off at 2pm. This way the tank can't get too hot, as our days get hottest at around 1-2pm (at least IME when observing the tank) I am pretty sure by switching things around like this I cna keep the temp at 82-84 (max) .

Here's hoping...

Get yourself a cheap timer from rona or canadian tire and you save the worries of forgetting.

Scott the other thing may be that you have been messing around in your tank too much. You said yourself you have been doing lots of work in and around your tank. Sometimes this can stress the fish too much. Although I am inclined to think it is your heat issues it could also be that you are in there too much.

I don't think the reason fish are jumping is because I am in the tank too much. And, I really am not in my tank that much. If I am, it's to pick up a fallen coral, or remove a bit of pest algae. I did do a bunch of cleaning a few weeks ago were I was in the tank for a couple days.. but nothing more than that really.

I am not saying it's not a possibility, I just don't think I am in the tank all that often, and like I mentioned, it's only to pick up a fallen coral or remove some pest algae. I do a good clean on everything once every couple months (or so I try) .

Having said that, I think I have so much pest algae, and fallen coral issues because my tank is too small. It's like the upgrade will solve a million and one problems (ok not a million.. you get the point) My sandbed is collecting far too much crap, and it's too hard to remove all of it without causing any kind of problem, so switching over and removing it all together would be a simple solution. I figured in the summer this would be the best time to get the new setup going, as it turns out it's not that great, with camping and all that fun summer stuff.. I will make the first step by going to place my order for the tank . After that, I will for sure have a tank I am keeping (compared to the last cube..) and all's I will need is a stand, and I'm set. No excuses as I don't need anything else to make the upgrade complete (as compared to before... I wanted to wait until I had an RO/DI unit)

I just need to find a weekend where I can spend a full day on switching everything over and however long it takes to get the finishing touches done.

Yeeesh...must have been nice and wrinkley by then.. :lol:

Did you decide on your new tank specs yet Scott?