jawfish suicide

[popper]

Hi , My jawfish (who was my favorite fish) jumped ship yesterday I was just watching him on Sat. night,it was so cute because my bicolor blenny and he were laying on top of each other on their perch rock.The blenny initiated the freindship,he would swim over to Jerry and idle alongside him.At first the Jerry would have nothing to do with it,but after awhile,well Ben was very persistant and they became best freinds!Now Ben is all by himself again,he does have good relations with the rest of the tank,but never before had he gone out of his way to be with another fish.My tank is completely covered or so I thought.I'm going to get a screen on the back of the canopy though.It's covered with glass and even have tape where there were any gaps.I guess the tape came loose from the humidity.I'm so sad.Do you guys and girls think they hate captivity that much that they jump?If so maybe it's cruel to keep them in the first place.Maybe hormones have something to do with it,looking for a mate?Oh well.maybe next time I'll try a mated pair if I can find one.Thanks for listening,Gail

[dobejazz]

Sorry to hear about Jerry

[Geoff]

most of the time when they jump it is at night. when they are startled when sleeping they bolt. usually in a vertical fashion. you might want to figure out what could have startled the fish. do you have any starfish or crabs in the tank?

G~

[kass03]

I dunno why they do it. I've had more than 1 in different tanks for several years and then they jumped. I also had most of the tank covered.
Jawfish are known for that.
One I had for 5-6 years in my 150 gallon and it still jumped out a small crack in the back.
Ive lost more fish to jumping than ever to disease. Seems like any little hole or I even had an angel jump through the slit in my lights.
Most of them were fish I had for years so seems weird.
Had a blue hippo jump after 8 years. I had the glass off the tank though never thinking that fish would jump.

Sorry about Jerry (thats why I never name my fish lol) and do try to cover every hole but I know it's hard with summer heat.

kass

[Nyles]

Sorry to hear about the loss, when I got mine I screened off the canopy back with "Gutter guard" to prevent loss due to about 4 of my fish being potential jumpers

[popper]

Hi Geoff, No, no iverts at all.I have a fire shrimp in refugium,since the day I got him.The PJ cardinals were about to eat him.The other fish all got along with Jerry,no harrassment at all.I'd had him 3 months and I could see him actively looking around the top for a hole.he would swim to the top and search,it was a planned thing.It also happened during the day.To find a way out of this tank it had to be planned,I found the small hole I had covered with tape that most have come loose it's 1/4 in.!There is no way a random jump would have found this.I'm going to screen the back of the canopy and take off the glass,if I leave the glass and one of the wrasse jump they won't fall back in.They would land on the glass and die anyway. Thanks everyone, Gail

[fishtank88]

sorry to hear about your fishes suicide, but with the hate bein captivity ive heard that they dont know that they are in captivity and if they figure out they just do really miserable