why would my fish jump out????

[sentencedme]

Hi,

Last night I noticed something lying on the floor about 2 feet from my aquarium....it was my 6-line wrasse. Has anyone else had this happen before? We have had him for about 7 months. We have not made any changes, added new tank mates, etc. I am bummed and just am at a loss. He always seemed happy, eating, swimming, etc. Please HELP!!!!!

Thanks everyone!!

[HumanIMDB]

Not sure if I can explain the psychology of why the fish jump but here are a few things I do know (or at least I've read them somewhere):
- All fish have the potential to jump. In the wild, there is usually millions of square miles of water to fall back in to...in our homes, they usually land on the floor.
- Stress can cause fish to jump in an effort to evade the stresser.
- Poor water quality can cause a fish to want to get to "cleaner" water.
- Sometimes there just isn't a reason.

We have eggcrate with plastic needle point canvas over it on top of your 10g nano as we had many a carpet surfer. On the AGA92 the canopy is almost 3' tall so if they have escape velocity they will land on the floor...in that case we'll concede to their determination and start searching the tank for the "Goodbye cruel world" note. ;) If they some how manage to get through the small cutouts for the overflow and return, we'll chalk it up to bad luck. If they hit one of the 4" fans...well, you get the picture.

[aZhu]

My yellow watchman goby has jumped into my overflow 2 times in the last month. Not sure why they do that. Probably they want to explore?

[mnml]

my sixline went carpet surfing after a year being happy in our tank. these fish are known to jump from time to time

[scottwhitson]

wrasses are known jumpers. If you plan to keep one you should "fence" in the top of your tank to keep it from making it to the carpet.

[EnglishRebel]

Problem is, if you have Eurobracing he can land there. He may flop around enough though to make it back into the tank. :)