Jumpers

[whuntley]

The tendency for killies to attempt to scale the evolutionary ladder by going for a hike on the carpet is pretty well known. A good "friend" once decorated the shelves of my fishroom with dozens of small silvery dried fish she purchased at an oriental market.

[I just smiled and skipped opening the fine vintage Cab for her and we had "Two-Buck Chuck" that evening.* I never get mad. I may, though, get even. ]

I have had very few jumpers, in reality, but enough to have made some observations. I'll state them as generalities, but I'm more than happy to be corrected based on the experience of others.

I have had only one species of Fundulopanchax show tendencies to jump out, OCC. [I don't make jumping out easy, so others may do it without me knowing it.]

Nearly all of the small, peaceful red Bettas are escape artists, IME. Those include coccina, burdigala, imbellis, smaragdina, etc. Not killies but usually kept by the same folks.

Many surface-dwellers, like Epis and Pseudepis will jump.

I am really gunshy about RIVs, because they are semi-terrestrial in the wild. They really LIKE it out of the water if the air isn't too dry.

I have had no jumpers among the true annuals, either African or South American. Likewise, I have never had a pupfish or springfish jump out.

The tendency to jump seems to me more common for fish just moved to new quarters, bare tanks,and recent water changes.

Non-jumping seems associated with floating plants (Duckweed, Water Spriye, etc.), heavy planting and lots of structure like rocks and wood.

That's my US$0.015 (two cents adjusted for devaluation) and YMMV. Let's hear your experiences here so we can avoid duplication, if possible.

[This thread actually was started on the deBruyn Filter thread, but I moved it here as a new topic.]

Wright
________________________
* Charles Shaw is a brand of pretty decent wines for US$1.99/750mL at Trader Joe's markets. in CA. [For some bizarre reason, it is $3 in Nevada where taxes are usually lower.]

[TyroneGenade]

Worst jumpers IME:

Aphyosemion striatum

Aplocheilus lineatus and panchax

Nothobranchius sp. aff. melanospilus

My Rivs are kepts well covered...

Regards

[promethean_spark]

I heard about the dried fishies firsthand from the perpetrator at the last baka meeting. That must have caused a few seconds of consternation!

IME, Fp gardnerii n'sukka never seem to jump, but SJO and A. exogoideum will. The EXOs are pretty skittish and dart about when startled, it seems pretty straightforward that if they're pointed up when they're startled they'll take to the sky like a red polaris missile. Mine are 100% covered, but Bob Tucker said he once found his male down one level and several tanks over on his rack, with the only openings being 1/2" square holes for air-lines.

[nonamethefish]

People seem to always talk about gardneri jumping. The SJO I keep have never tried jumping out(they would be dead by now )

[promethean_spark]

My adult gardneriis are in a 20g with a 4x4" hole in the lid (which I feed them through) they've been in there a year and none have jumped out.

My female SJO jumped out of a spawning tank after she'd laid all her eggs, so maybe I can't blame her for running!

[shortman]

My Notho. would jump for food to an inch high if the worm are place at that level.
The first time I caught them jump I was so afraid that I have to cover the whole tank exept feeding time.

[Stu]

1 month ago i found my female Notho. palmqvisti, dryed on top of the tank . I've never had them jump before! GOOD thing she was old and I already had the replacment breeders up to size.
6 years ago when I move to my present abode I had about 20 Rivulas holmaei . It took me a week to get there tank ready , the bear bottom tank they were in did not have a lid . Every morning for a week I threw 6 to 10 fish back in the tank, which had jumped that night . Didn't lose a single one! there an amazing fish . Any other species would have dyed.

[hobbit6003]

Haha, I'm not too sure a thicket of floating plants like frogbits help in reducing jumping casualties!

I returned home one day to find out that one of my female Pseudomugil gertrudae dried up on top of the frogbit leaves. She must have gone sun tanning, but stupid fish didn't know how to plunge back into the water!

My Notho. guentheri have so far not being able to penetrate through the floating thickets yet, but I'm not counting my blessings. I've so far thin down the floating layers, and also left a small surface uncovered. Hopefully they know what to do.

The tanks are covered anyway.

Cheers,

Kenny

[felixe]

I also have STR and SJO in open tanks since last year, but I haven't found any dryied fish untill now, with my little luck...
But maybe... I should have to make some mesh covers for them like my Nothos.
Thanks.

[erikthur]

Worst jumpers IME:
...
Aplocheilus lineatus and panchax
...

Funny thing is that I have kept commercially bred Lineatus for one year now. I often forgotten to cover the tanks but no jumping at all.
May-be sort of a natural selection have taken place in this strain.
Only those who do not jump will live to spawn.

[RonWill]

Folks,
The 3tier 4feet setup with Internal Overflow System (IOS) took more time than I anticipated, to have it running the way I wanted it and the biggest problems I'm facing is substrate clogging and a anti-kamakazi cover.

It would have been easy if the height of water column is lower, but that's determined by the IOS, so I've been toying with different and affordable ways. Here's one such method and while it's working, it doesn't look 'nice'.


There are two 'stretches' of cover. The rear-half stretch in nylon netting, being held taut in place with modified folder spline/clip, while the front is a pane of acrylic with bevelled feeding holes that a turkey baster tip can slip into.


The two stretches overlap in between by about 2inches to reduce the chances of jumpers. The output jets from spray bar is 'blocked' to reduce turbulance and the haze from super fine suspended bubbles.

Any smart ideas from you folks out there... before my hair goes white?