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

[OCDP]

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.

[Buccaneer]

Do you have the room for a slightly larger tank ?

[OCDP]

Originally Posted by Buk_A_neer

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.

[Skimmer Juice]

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

[Buccaneer]

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 ) ... so the bigger you go the better

[Delphinus]

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.

[adidas]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Eggcrate man.

yup just do eggcrate

[tango]

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

[Ruth]

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.

[EmilyB]

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