several plunges

[White Lightning]

So I gotta say....I'm getting a little frustrated with my damm fish. In the last three weeks I have had several fish jump from my tanks and plunge to their death. The first three were from my 50 gallon reef tank. All within three weeks I had two clownfish and one damsel jump out of the tank. I do not have a canopy or top on the tank because I do not want to impede the lighting.

My other tank is a 65 gallon FOWLR. I have a glass top on this tank and have made every effort to block any escape routes. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job because when I went to feed my snowflake eel I could not find him. I figured I bettter take a peek behind the tank. Sure enough there he was. I am not sure how long he had been there. When I went to pick him up, he was actually still alive. Most of his slime coat had dried up. I just put him back into the tank and he imediately swam and burrowed into a pile of live rock. I'm really hoping he shows some resiliency and bounces back from his stupid decision to see what was on the other side of the glass.

Just last week I added a white ribbon eel to this tank so I am thinking that this may have attributed to his decision to jump. Is tehre something I can do to help him bounce back?

[95cx]

Get a sheet of eggcrate or light diffuser from Home Depot and build a top with that. Might affect lighting a little but not as much as glass.

[Tyler.L]

Randy,

eels have an amazing survival rate when they're outta the tank. Someone on RC had theres out for like 6 hours and put it back in the tank was all dry and covered in hair and 2-3 days later was eating like nothing happened....so no worries about that as long as its gills were still wet/damp everythings groovy

as for the cover, use some screen and some track and put it together to fit the tank alot of threads on it all over rc, i will try and pick one up for you, thread that is, and find some pics of there covered tanks.

[White Lightning]

Thanks Tyler, that is reassuring. Looking at him now and it looks as though he is shedding. Hopefully he makes it. Thank god I was home today to catch it before he was out too long and shrivelled up.

[Severum]

Join the club of jumpers. I'm at a clownfish, jawfish and goby so far. And 2 of those were with eggcrate covering the tank.

[White Lightning]

It really sucks to find them on the floor. On a good note.....the eel looks like he's doing great. He ate the krill that was offered to him, he's swimming around and does not have anything that looks out of the ordinary. Pretty remarkable.

[QueensU]

Eels are really hard to keep in one place, they like to roam and unless kept in a container with a tight fitting lid they will get out. The lid also needs to be fastened, or have enough weight on it to prevent them from lifting it. If the lid is just sitting there, they will poke it with their nose.

[White Lightning]

Believe me the lid is on there securely. I just happened to miss one tiny spot where he was able to find. They are slitherly little buggers. A few months ago the same eel swam into my HOB skimmer. I was out of town and my wife called me in a panic saying that she had just watched the eel swim into the intake pipe. I had to get her to go over to the neighbours and ask him to help fish it out. ( no pun intended)