Juvies Leaping out of Tank

[Revan]

Two of my new fry / juvies have jumped clear out of their tank. One of them was dead before I found him. Super upsetting. With the other one I was fortunately there when it happened. I scooped him up and put him back in the tank, but he could be greatly injured.

I'm looking for ideas on how to prevent this from happening again.

The tank does indeed have a lid on it. It's fairly tight fitting, though I have two holes for the auto-feeders. The fish I saw jump today went through one of those holes; I can only assume the other fish did the same. It seems highly unlikely the fish could jump out precisely where the small holes are, and then not get blocked by the auto-feeder itself. However it's happened twice in the last week. The issue is that I will always need such holes for auto-feeding.

I'm re-cutting the lid to have smaller holes. I've also dropped the water level a bit; however I don't think that will do the trick as this guy got a good foot of clearance of the rim of the tank.

Open to any other ideas. Does anyone know of a mesh material that would be big enough to let food through? Etc.

Thank you,

Evan

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Evan, are your juvies easily spooked? Lowering the water level is a good start. Could you measure your water parameters and post them here. Also what is your water change schedule like...how often and how much?
Pat

[Sturiosoma]

Here is something I've done, I have attached my auto feeder to the return side of my hang on filter, and I only use aquaclear so it was easy to doand the return flow helps to push the food into the tank, and another thing discus are not really known as jumpers, and even though your aging your water are you using a quality dechlorinator such as amquell or api with your water changes.

Jeanne

[slicksta]

Nice angle Pat ;-)
I've never seen discus jump other than when spooked.
Wish I could say the same for my attempt at keeping hatchets

[Second Hand Pat]

Nice angle Pat ;-)
I've never seen discus jump other than when spooked.
Wish I could say the same for my attempt at keeping hatchets

Thanks John, yup, my approach to this is to see of the discus are spooky for a reason..ie..poor quality water, too high nitrates etc.
Pat

[jeep]

I've read that a malfunctioning heater can cause this if electrical current is bleeding into the water. I've never experienced it, just read it :confused:

[Revan]

WC 75% in the morning. 75% in the evening. Aged tap water. PH before and after every change is ~8.2. Temp in both tanks is 85.

Liquid tests show no ammonia, trates or trites.

Generally these fish have been quite calm. This morning the dude wasn't even acting oddly before. One second he's swimming around calmly the next he's beelining for the open skies. It did happen as I was opening the front part of the lid for feeding, though that hasn't spooked him before.

[slicksta]

I've read that a malfunctioning heater can cause this if electrical current is bleeding into the water. I've never experienced it, just read it :confused:

If your electricals are plugged in to a gfi receptacle it should trip if this is the case.
If not gfi protected and have a Multimeter you can test by placing one probe in the water and the other to the ground prong of the electrical receptacle. The voltage leak would probably be below 20v so start at line voltage and work your way down the scale.

[sunsetopal]

Hi Revan! I am so sorry about your loosing your 2 Juvies! That is just crazy how they managed to jump out of a precise area. I am finding they are intelligent little creatures in ways! I just lost one from jumping out of the tank also the other day. And then found another passed the next day. No apparent reason.
Mine are very young.. 1.5-2.5 inches. I have 8 left and want to THANK YOU for starting this thread and hope you have no more Discus performing Hari Cari on you!
I transferred my 8 to a new tank with new heater a few days ago and have been trying to figure out why they were doing non-stop swimming marathoning at an unusually fast pace! This thread gave me pause to turn off the heater and see if they would calm and sure enough!!... big change! Luckily I had a spare heater and now they are swimming more normal!!
Regina