Tetra's jumping to their death??? HELP!!!

[DawnMarie81]

We started with a school of 12 Bloodfin tetras, and are now down to 7.  They keep jumping out of the tank.  I am not sure how they manage to do it, as the tank is completely covered with 2 lights on top.  WHy would they be doing this?

I noticed today that 2 of the other tetras are more white they they should be.  It is not white spots, but just rather they are more white in color then silver like they should be, and the red coloring in their fins and tails is also losing a lot of the color and turning white.  What could this be?  Is it a strange form of ick?  Like i said, there are no white spots, just the fish color itself is turning more white.  All the rest of our fish are fine, and look ok and healthy. 

I tested the water again, and all the levels are good.  What could this be?

[KLKelly]

Can you post the results of your water tests?

Temperature
PH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate

When you feed them are they eating? SPitting it out?
Are their fins clamped to their sides?
And are they flashing - rubbing quickly against the gravel/walls/ornaments?

[Vizerdrix]

Yes, if you could give us the exact results of your tests that would help.  It sounds suspiciously like bad water and they are trying to escape it.

Either that, or some of the other fish are harassing them; I would suspect the Angels as Tetras are a natural food source for them.

[dan2x38]

Any of the gouramis showing signs of spawning? They might be getting aggressive chasing them too. Is your heater to high or cracked?

[DawnMarie81]

Can you post the results of your water tests?

Temperature
PH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate

When you feed them are they eating? Spitting it out?
Are their fins clamped to their sides?
And are they flashing - rubbing quickly against the gravel/walls/ornaments?

Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0, nitrate is 1, and the water temp is 79 degrees, and I will go check the PH again...be right back...ok, the PH for both the low range and high range is 7.6.  Even when i do water changes my PH is almost always 7.6, once it was higher, so I assume 7.6 is close to where it should be at?

I am home all day long since I work from home,and have never seen any of the other fish picking on them, chasing them or anything of the sort.  I use to have 2 very aggressive gold gouramis but i took them back to the store and for 2 different ones, one of which died when i had all the algae in my tank, and the other is doing good.  I have never seen the angels picking on any of the fish either. 

No, the fins are not stuck to their bodies, and yes they are eating when I feed them, and not spitting it out.  They eat quite a bit and steal food from the other fish.  And no, I have never seen them flashing on anything, except maybe the plants, if possible to flash on plants, but that is more just playing i think when they chase each other around the tank and swim in a line back and forth.  They areall very playful and always schooling with the others, the ones what have the fins losing the red color are still acting the same as all the rest.

I have not noticed any of my gouramis acting any different.  A while back 2 of them were doing a little dance together, my gold and one of my blues, but i have not noticed anything since then, or seen any of then chasing the tetras around/away.  Most of the time, they just sit down closer to the corner where the heater is (unless chasing each other and playing) and the heater is on the opposite side of the tank as the thermometre, so I am pretty sure the temp of the water is ok all through it. 

Now that I am thinking of it, when we first put out C02 bubble thing in the tank, our tetras kept swimming by it and somehow wiggling behind and getting stuck.  Could this of somehow affected them?  This was a couple months ago they were doing this though.

[Montrealguy]

Bloodfins like to jump. If you have a power filter, they may be swimming up the outflow for the fun of it, landing on the sponge or other filter media and panicking. They then flip out and that's that.
Either that, or something is scaring them, and they are going up to escape it. Silvery fish use the sun/water meeting point for camouflage. I wouldn't suspect the water - I'd look for the exit point and cover it. It's not unnatural behavior.