My mandarin took the leap

[Specfishin]

Well, my mandarin went missing a couple days ago. I tore my rock up a bit to find him tonight but no success. I was worried of the worst happening. Is it gonna crash the tank if he died? Is he stuck in the drain pipe? A rock? Inside somethings belly? I researched what I could. Found some hope and horror stories. Maybe he's found a pod resort under the rockwork? Then last resort I thought, is he laying on the ground? He couldn't have made it into the sump/refugium!He's always been out and about or sleeping in a specific spot or two. I just replenished some pods and watched him go nuts over them. Well, apparently over that night he must've gone nuts and jumped out of the tank. Because well After I rummaged through my tank and inhabitants, tested parameters, i found him behind the display tank on the floor. I didn't realize they would jump out and I feel horrible for not having a top now. All week he had been in and out of the current picking at the pods on tank walls. Never even occurred to me they would jump. I know any fish "could" jump or be spooked. So in short, be aware of the possibilities that may occur regardless of what you may be told or know. Happy reefing, I just wanted to share my loss so I could possibly prevent someone else from a loss. And on that note the 125 has a canopy so no jumpers are getting out in that one as soon as I get it setup. Goodbye Mandy I know ya went to fish heaven

 

[Fishmaster13]

That sucks sorry about him. Also a suggestion do you have a cleaner crew? Mine is pretty decent sized but even a few hermit crabs and carnivorous snails will take away the panicked moments of dead fish. If a fish (or anything) dies in my tank it's usually gone in under an hour. They can also help with algae, leftover fish food, and are just better for the tank.

 

[Specfishin]

Yea I have a very hearty cuc. But I was panicking since Iwork so much and I had just gotten into a good groove with the tank. I also wasn't sure if the cuc would eat a mandarin dead or alive. Regardless I'm not adding any fish till i make the big tank move. Hopefully before May.

 

[Spiralinglotus1]

Lost my guy the same way

 

[mms_citrus]

Firefish are the suicidal ones in my tank.

 

[TheAquatect]

Firefish are the suicidal ones in my tank.

Ditto!

On a side note, be aware that fish can survive quite a bit longer than we would expect. I had a Midas blenny that my wife found on the floor and he did not move when I picked him up. He wasn't dried out, so I took a chance and held him in my hand and moved him back and forth in the tank to get water over the gills and after a minute or 2 he started twitching then swimming and after a day, he was back to normal. He did lose a lot of his fins, which have now grown back fine.

 

[mms_citrus]

Kitty cats like salted dried fishes

 

[Specfishin]

Ditto!

On a side note, be aware that fish can survive quite a bit longer than we would expect. I had a Midas blenny that my wife found on the floor and he did not move when I picked him up. He wasn't dried out, so I took a chance and held him in my hand and moved him back and forth in the tank to get water over the gills and after a minute or 2 he started twitching then swimming and after a day, he was back to normal. He did lose a lot of his fins, which have now grown back fine.

Unfortunately mine was dried to the wood floor. Like its been there for a few days. I thought he was just hiding, little did I know.

 

[Cperkins8]

I have a rimless tank and have lost a few to jumping out. I had a puffer that even bounced off the back wall and landed in the refugium down in the sump once as well. It sucks to lose one. Somebody should make a inward curved lip for the top edge of rimless tanks to keep jumpers in.

 

[lifeoffaith]

Great idea Cperkins8, except that it would have to be a pretty hefty lip to stop most jumpers. My wrasse jumped over the back of my tank which has a filter chamber about 3 inches wide and hit the wall hard, so it would have jumped quite a distance if the wall wasn't there. Thankfully I was sitting right there and now have eggrate over the tank to avoid future jumpers.