# What causes fish to jump?



## skipcharlie (Dec 17, 2016)

Have my first rimless tank and so far I've lost 3 swordtails and a Siamese algae eater. All have jumped out in the middle of the night and I find them dried out in the morning.

I've kept open top tanks before with no problem so this is really throwing me for a loop.

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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Some fish just have the tendency to do so (for example killifish will always jump), rest will jump from stress or fear. Bad water parameters or aggressive tankmates can cause jumping. Sometimes new fish can jump when seeing humans. At night car lights from the window can stress fish enough to jump. Really there are so many reasons for fish to jump, that it's hard to tell without knowing the environment. 
For example my butterfly fish and blue gularis are jumping to pull the food out of my hand before it will reach water. Ropefish are jumping when fighting or just from boredom sometimes...


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## Jjonesls1 (Apr 26, 2017)

SAE are not a good fit for open tanks in my experience. All 3 of mine lept to their death in about a month. One jumped and was saved 3 separate times before he finally dried out on the 4th attempt.

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## skipcharlie (Dec 17, 2016)

Jjonesls1 said:


> SAE are not a good fit for open tanks in my experience. All 3 of mine lept to their death in about a month. One jumped and was saved 3 separate times before he finally dried out on the 4th attempt.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


Thank you guys. It's weird because this isn't the first first open top tank I've kept. I currently have 3 other open top tanks and the only livestock I've lost is a single amano shrimp that decided to climb up on top of my current satellite plus fixture and burn to death.

I've kept mollies, swordtails, SAE's, various tetras and never had a jumper.

This new tank is very high tech and located in an office so I'm not a around. Puzzling.

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## geisterwald (Jul 18, 2016)

skipcharlie said:


> Thank you guys. It's weird because this isn't the first first open top tank I've kept. I currently have 3 other open top tanks and the only livestock I've lost is a single amano shrimp that decided to climb up on top of my current satellite plus fixture and burn to death.
> 
> I've kept mollies, swordtails, SAE's, various tetras and never had a jumper.
> 
> ...


Bad parameters can also cause fish to jump. It's a "high tech" tank, does that mean you're running CO2? Your CO2 could be hitting levels that push the fish to jump. Alternatively, ammonia/nitrite and/or nitrate could be too high. I'd try and monitor that somehow and see if you need to change anything about how the tank is maintained.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Assuming the water chemistry is suitable with respect to ammonia,nitrites,nitrates, which larger plant mass and regular maint can help control,some floating plant's have in the past greatly decreased the number's of fishes I lose from jumping.
Have lost all manner of fishes in the past, including those mentioned from jumping, and easiest remedy was to replace the glass cover's over my tanks ,but I grow increasingly more lazy as I get older, and don't much like cleaning the glass top's each week that were famous for collecting hard water deposit's.
Since providing some floating plant's,,I seldom lose fishes I did in the past from tanks without plant's.
IME Swordtails need long tanks(3 to 4 Ft.) with room to swim back and forth and to help curb aggressive tendencies of males on subdominant males, or females on females .
Swordtail's also seem to do better for me with cooler temps in 74 to 76 Degree's F
Siamese algae eater's, and Swordtails alike, are very active fish and to lose one or two in open top tank would not come as a surprise to me after caring for them since I was in high school. 
With activity level's of the larger swordtail's and Siamese algae eater's as they mature,I would expect a lot of darting about if room permit's, and both species along with other species housed with them,,could easily startle one another or other tank mates,and they leave the surface of the water.
I'm presently keeping Swordtail's,Celebs Rainbow's,Turquoise Rainbow's,platy's,corydoras in 80 gal, open top tank, and have lost two fish (sadly celeb's rainbow's),in last six month's.
Hope some of this help's.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

I too have a tank of jumpers. Water quality is good, so I've found the best way to deal with it is to provide more cover with plants. Since I have HOB filters, having floating plants is a pain in the butt and my fish kill them anyway by means of destroying the roots.

My alternative aside from plant mass is to have plants that grow large such as jungle val. It is not demanding, easy to grow and they spread. There will be some maintenance involved as they will need to be trimmed, but it keeps the fish from jumping and knocking themselves out from bouncing off the lid. I prefer jungle tanks, so the aesthetics of how the tank looks is a non-issue. 

The other things I do is:

I don't blind the fish with high light. If I try to turn the lights up, all of them disappear until I either turn the lights down or when it is lights out for the day. I'd rather see them throughout the day, so I leave lights set to a brightness they will readily tolerate. As the vals grow in and act like shade, I may or may not experiment with higher light. Probably not as I'm the type of person that believes in trying fixing something that is not broken.

Another thing I do is keep 'human free' space in the tank. For the 40B, this means the two back corners of the tank. The only time I mess with those corners is when I have to do something like plant maintenance. For example, last week I pulled out all the needle leaf java fern and gave it a trim as it has been over a month since I did it last.


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## Preetam (Jan 19, 2017)

A new fish will try to jump out of a tank, the other reason could be if its bullied or the water quality is bad.

When i add new Fish to a open top tank, i usually cover the edges of the tank with saran wrap leaving a small gap for air exchange in the middle. Once the fish have settled I remove it. I usually keep it for two weeks. The wrap might not look good on a display tank. I found this to be easier than meddling with Glass tops and custom hoods that would be needed to cover the tank during this phase. its easier to fix and remove the plastic wrap.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

After my Betta jumped out of his nano (I think small tanks are even worse for jumpers) I made a quick and effective cover out of the plastic grid a lot of use to develop height in aquascapes. I cut out areas for the filter, light etc and painted it black.


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

skipcharlie said:


> Have my first rimless tank and so far I've lost 3 swordtails and a Siamese algae eater. All have jumped out in the middle of the night and I find them dried out in the morning.
> 
> I've kept open top tanks before with no problem so this is really throwing me for a loop.
> 
> Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk


they jump out because they dont like the water. there must be something that they dont like. i had a lot of jumpers (fishes, shrimps, snails) when i first started this hobby. I didnt know how bad my water was. but after my tank stabilized, i had no more jumpers since.

open top, dont have a lid.


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## skipcharlie (Dec 17, 2016)

It's not water. I test regularly. I think it's lighting. Perhaps radions are too bright.

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## Omar EAZi (Aug 5, 2015)

did you cycle this tank before you put the fishes in? did you check all the parameters?! Fishes jump out of the tank if they don't like the environment, so basically ammonia/nitrite/nitrate on of these 3 could be getting really high and that's what making them jump outside to find a better home.


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## skipcharlie (Dec 17, 2016)

Omar EAZi said:


> did you cycle this tank before you put the fishes in? did you check all the parameters?! Fishes jump out of the tank if they don't like the environment, so basically ammonia/nitrite/nitrate on of these 3 could be getting really high and that's what making them jump outside to find a better home.


Yes cycled fully. Do tests regularly. I've since put a makeshift lid on tank. It's still a mystery though. Only fish to jump were swordtails and one SAG. Always found in the morning. I'm thinking light intensity was too bright, ramp up not long enough. But honestly don't know for sure.

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