"...clown fish are jumpin..."

L

lmcnutt

That paddle wheel thumpin
Black water keeps rollin on past just the same
Old black water, keep on rollin
Mississippi moon, wont you keep on shinin on me...

Two, count 'em, two clownfish jumped to their death from my 10gal tank. Is the tank too small? I thought they'd be fine. I was wrong.
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Another note. This tank had a bit of a scum problem on the water surface. Not uncommon. But since the hob fuge gets fed from a mj400 under the surface of the display, the scum would build up a little. Only really visible from underneath the water.

I accidentally found a remedy when trying to aerate the tank one day. I found if I just dropped an air stone under the surface a few inches and left it there for an hour or so, the surface was sparkling clean. Anyone else noticed this? Did a skimmer effect happen and then spray the gunk up onto my light fixture?

Larry
 
I am by no means an expert, but the scum issue vastly limits the air exchange of the water. You may have had a low oxygen scenario in the tank and that could have caused the fish to become suicidal.

As for the air stone causing a skimming effect onto the lights, I doubt that is the case. More than likely the bubbles just agitated the surface which caused the scum to be mixed back into the tank water.
 
I'm pretty sure the o2 is ok. The orp measures 400+. It seems to have plenty of os2 exchange with the air stone skimmer and the hob fuge baffles

I'm going to do another water test. Thanks for the response.
 
ORP does not equal Oxygenation level

Now, good oxygenation will contribute to a good ORP level, but that's not the _only_ factor. Fact is, you can have a high ORP and have low oxygenation.
 
While I agree they SHOULD have more space, before I knew any better I kept a pair of Ocellaris Clowns in a 10 gallon for well over a year with no jumpage...

Is there anything else in the tank that could be startling them? Or even near the tank?
 
Nothing else but some coral and a peppermint shrimp. Plenty of stuff near the tank. Wife, 3 kids, 2 labs and a very curious cat.

It's enough to make me wanna jump too.
 
I once had two false perculas in a 10gal. Once they got along, they didn't jump. I also had my fair share of people looking at the tank including kids banging on the glass saying "nemo!!!!!" but they never jumped. My case may be different and they should have more room but I doubt that there is not enough room, therefore they jump. Maybe you should invest in a glass cover, I have one if you want it. LMK
 
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