Reasons for fish suicide?

Sescil · Post by **Sescil** » 29 Aug 2005, 17:05

What a terrible weekend! My 6 inch L-25 and my 6 inch Brachyplatystoma Juruense jumped out of their 250 gallon tank. The water parameters all checked out fine and the other fish in the tank(3 4inch Peacock Bss) are showing no signs of stress and eating like pigs. Wo is me ...

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 29 Aug 2005, 18:15

Sescil wrote:What a terrible weekend! My 6 inch L-25 and my 6 inch Brachyplatystoma Juruense jumped out of their 250 gallon tank.

My experience is that 1) fish jump because they're spooked or harassed during the night (e.g. when I had Otocinclus which parasitized other fish, I had fish on the floor pretty much every morning; removing the otos stopped the jumping) and 2) leaving a nightlight on pretty much eliminates the problem.

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 31 Aug 2005, 13:00

I also find Otos do the same thing, Mike. I have nightlights on in the evening. For the morning, I have a small light on in the room. It's a scary sight to see.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 31 Aug 2005, 16:09

even more simple is a closed hood.....

why leave a tank open to the rest of the room?
dust gets in, the watervapour gets out; fish can get killed.

I used to put removable glasspanes on every tank to avoid massive waterloss due to evaporation and dried-up fish.

something that's an absolute necessity when you like fish such as Polypterus, Calamoichthys, Callichthys, Hoplosternum, Clarias and other notorious "jailbreakers".

but it sure helps other jumpy fish from escapting. I'd rather have a fish with a scratched nose than a dead one.

pictus_man_77 · Post by **pictus_man_77** » 31 Aug 2005, 17:27

uh oh, i brought home some otos today, theyve settled in nicely, but now i know they will suck onto other fish!!! i have angelfish aswell, in the middle of raising their eggs

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 31 Aug 2005, 20:09

It's NOT standard behaviour of Otocinclus, but exceptional.

some do it, but most just ignore all other fish; there's no way of telling they'll go for it; and the presence or absence of algae doesn't seem to count, it's completely erratic.

still highly unusual; you can keep 50 Oto's over years and none will do it; then you can keep 3 and find all 3 prefer the Discus to the algaecarpet.....

Graeme · Post by **Graeme** » 01 Sep 2005, 03:42

I cant agree more!

Personally i've found it to be juvenile Oto's that have the energy and need for these actions.

pictus_man_77 · Post by **pictus_man_77** » 01 Sep 2005, 09:03

hmm, i saw one grab my angel for a split second but thats only because the angel was pinning him against the glass, and he coudlnt swim away, but the angel went bezerk, so he let go. What do i feed them? im not sure all of the algae has gone in my tank, but it might have done. Ive left a piece of lettuce in my tank and two of them love it, but the other doesnt care to taste the 'strange leaf'
but ill tell ya one thing : theyre not stupid!!! i tried just putting the lettuce in with some pebbles on it to weight it down, but they just ignored it, so i moved it closer, and they moved away. that went on a few minutes untill i just left it in the middle of their home, which is the plant i released them on

Reasons for fish suicide?

Reasons for fish suicide?

Re: Reasons for fish suicide?