Flying Trapeze Houdini Goby

[NedFlounders]

I've read that Gobies are jumpers, but I have a 3 foot deep corner tank with plastic light diffuser covering the top of the tank, all enclosed inside a canopy with 2 doors...

Well, I woke up this morning and found the goby on the floor of my living room :| Picked up him and he didn't appear to be breathing and felt tacky, as if he was drying out. Thought he was dead so I dropped him in the toilet to flush him. That is when he jumped and started breathing again! I quickly scooped him outta the toilet and dropped him back into the main tank, where he is now happy and breathing just fine.

I have no idea how long he was suffocating and drying out on the floor. And it's a shear miracle the cat didn't eat him.

I guess the moral of the story is don't underestimate known jumpers :lmao:

Tonight I will be installing a mesh screen so this doesn't happen again!

[snorvich]

Tonight I will be installing a mesh screen so this doesn't happen again!

1/4 inch mesh

[whosurcaddie]

Glad you got to him in time. He probably just wanted to go for a walk. :)

[ScienceRulez]

Reminds me of a time when I was moving from Utah to New Jersey in late November and one of my goldfish jumped out of the tank. I know it was out of the tank for a minimum of 18 hours. It was all dry and sticky, not breathing. Out of sheer hope I put it back in the tank and slowly moved it back and forth in the water forcing water across the gills and it came to life!

He lived another 8 years for a total of 15 years.

[stefdvm]

1/4 inch mesh

So... I've lost 3 gobies to jumping, even though my tanks had glass tops - there was that little space at the back where the filter pipes went in. So when I put this new larger tank together, I bought clear 1/4" mesh from an aquarium supplier and covered the top. This morning I found my yasha goby on top of the mesh!! Now what do I do to try to keep a goby in? Or do I give up on gobies for good as I obviously can't keep them in my tank

[billdogg]

Here's how I made mine, no jumpers yet.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll227/billdogg_photos/120g%20build/img_0459.jpg (http://s289.photobucket.com/user/billdogg_photos/media/120g%20build/img_0459.jpg.html)

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll227/billdogg_photos/120g%20build/img_0458.jpg (http://s289.photobucket.com/user/billdogg_photos/media/120g%20build/img_0458.jpg.html)

As you can see, I made the tops in 4 sections - two large front sections that can easily be lifted off, and two smaller sections made for cords to go through, so not as easily removable. Just use a razor blade to cut through 3 or 4 sections, just wide enough for the cords to go through. The slits are, in effect, self healing, closing back up around the cords and leaving no gap for any jumper to escape from.

hth