Terrifying fish drama.

[mardigraskisses]

So I'm sitting here playing WoW, minding my own business, when all of the sudden I see a black flash out of the corner of my eye. I look over and one of my mother's fish is flopping around on the carpet!

So, I screamed like a little school girl, jumped out of my chair (my laptop goes flying) and try to put him back in the tank.

I miss.

I grab him again and his sharp spines stick me. Finally I get him back in the tank, have a mini panic attack, and try to find out how in the world he got out.

I still have no idea how he managed to escape. My mom keeps making fun of me cause I cried. :grumpy:

Thankfully the fish, my laptop, and I are all okay.

 

[Amy27]

I would have screamed and had a mini panic attack too!!! I don't like touching fish....at all. I probably would have tried to pick the fish up on a magazine or something lol Good job getting it back in the tank!

 

[bunnybunbunb]

HAHA xD Sorry, but that is funny. If you have every had Bettas you get use to flying fish. I remember we had a glass sucker who we found dead and crisp on my floor. I put him back in the tank, a few hours later he was a live. He did it about 4 times before he finely stayed dead and crisp. That was about 6 years ago.

I remember one time when I was cleaning my take, same year, my nephew ate my orange fruit tetra. Man was I mad.

 

[degrassi]

Yeah, fish jumping out of the tank is pretty common. Its amazing how they can fit through even tiny, tiny holes when the tank is covered.

This morning I woke up to my Betta on my bedroom floor. All dried and crispy. I had forgotten to put the cover back on the tank after cleaning it last night. Poor crispy Fred

I"m glad you saw him jump and were able to save him. Make sure the tank is 100% covered, even holes around filters need to be covered if you have jumpy fish.

 

[Saudade]

We have an african cichlid, can't remember it's normal name, but it jumped out of the tank, my mum found it all crispy and dropped it back in the tank, it sank for a couple of seconds and then went back to swimming around...

 

[mardigraskisses]

I'm so glad I saw him jump. My mom has a dog and I don't think I could handle finding half a fish somewhere. :tears2:

He's called a convict, I think. He's got really pretty stripes. Would be a shame for such a pretty fish to commit suicide like that.

My mom has an evil Oscar fish in the tank with it who eats guppies and attacks the sucker fish. I think he may have chased the convict and spooked him. :grumpy:

My mom needs to lrn2aquarium.

 

[fuzz16]

I've had eel like fish and my saltwater gobies jump out of the tank...kinda scary when its a 50$ fish jumping outta the tank

 

[DeniseJP]

Oh, scary!

I just lost my green terror cichlid to old age - he was about 5 years old and huge... not fun taking a huge dead fish out of the tank and he was too big to flush...

Two fish left - a pleco (sucker) fish and a rainbow shark who thought nothing of going after the cichlid when he was a baby but that changed when the cichlid got big.

Glad everyone is OK.

Denise

 

[JadeIcing]

We had an Oscar that if you were late feeding would jump out the tank.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

we had a Red Tiger Oscar that I used to hand feed beef heart strips. A friend "had" to feed him once--instead of dangling the strip he held most of it between his fingers, so, Oscar grabbed his fingers--so, here's my 6' 5" friend running in circles screaming with an Oscar hanging onto his fingers. Last time he volunteered to feed him. He'd also jump out of the tank onto the adjacent chair trying to get to his food as he knew his feeding time and would watch as you crossed the room with it on a towel. Real character for a fish.

 

[degrassi]

DeniseJP wrote:

Oh, scary!

I just lost my green terror cichlid to old age - he was about 5 years old and huge... not fun taking a huge dead fish out of the tank and he was too big to flush...

Two fish left - a pleco (sucker) fish and a rainbow shark who thought nothing of going after the cichlid when he was a baby but that changed when the cichlid got big.

Glad everyone is OK.

Denise

Sorry to tell you but at 5 years he didn't die of old age. Large CA/SA cichlids, like the green terror, can live for 10-15+years.

The lifespans of aquarium fish are usually much higher then what people think. Like your pleco can live for 20+years. I have a friend that has a group of synodontis multipunctatus(small african catfish) that are 26years so far.Or those little feeder goldfish can live 20-30years, but unfortunately most die after months/few years.

My very first angelfish lived to be 8, almost 9yo and I have a red eyed tetra that is over 9yo now. I"m always amazed at how long they live, even the little tetras.

I had a few shrimp escape this week. Found them crispy under the lighting

 

[Luvmyzoocrew]

ha ha ha i had to laugh. We had a betta jump out of the tank but that was because my 3 year old had dumped crayons, markers, lego and erasers into the tank and had his hand in the tank so the fish decided he wanted out. landed on the radiator behind the lil table his tank was on,lol. I only knew what had happen cause my three year old came down to tell me we needed to get Justin a new fish cause his fish was dead!!!!!! after i translated what the heck he was say i went flying into the house and into the bedroom,lol, we found him on the radiator, suprisingly alive and is still alive, this happened in the summer,lol

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

Woww!!

One time when we had our first betta, there had been a power outage in the middle of the night, and I guess one of the cats got up on the tv stand (about 6 feet tall to the top!) where the fish was and knockd his bowl over! My dad found him in the dark and almost stepped on him! So he fell 6 feet, had been lying there gosh knows how long and was alive, hadn't been eaten by the cats or anything! Good thing bettas breathe oxygen in the air like us! He was perfectly fine and ended up living for a couple more years!

The bettas I have now always do little jumps. My old betta, Blitz, he used to jump too, and he would play with the pebbles in his tank. I have three bettas righ now, Rosie, Zelda, and Rainbeau. The girls are the first girl bettas I've ever had....I much prefer the boys, but I do love the girls. Rosie is a Cambodian Red, so right when I saw her I couldn't leave her! lol. A few weeks back I saw a gorgeous green male at WalMart...didn't get him though and I wish I had. He was so handsome. I've had these bettas for about... 1 year? Maybe longer. Blitz was the first one I got when I got these guys and he died sometime last year. He was my fave out of the bunch. I always seem to lose my fave boys.

Emily

 

[Saudade]

degrassi wrote:

DeniseJP wrote:

Oh, scary!

I just lost my green terror cichlid to old age - he was about 5 years old and huge... not fun taking a huge dead fish out of the tank and he was too big to flush...

Two fish left - a pleco (sucker) fish and a rainbow shark who thought nothing of going after the cichlid when he was a baby but that changed when the cichlid got big.

Glad everyone is OK.

Denise

Sorry to tell you but at 5 years he didn't die of old age. Large CA/SA cichlids, like the green terror, can live for 10-15+years.

The lifespans of aquarium fish are usually much higher then what people think. Like your pleco can live for 20+years. I have a friend that has a group of synodontis multipunctatus(small african catfish) that are 26years so far.Or those little feeder goldfish can live 20-30years, but unfortunately most die after months/few years.

My very first angelfish lived to be 8, almost 9yo and I have a red eyed tetra that is over 9yo now. I"m always amazed at how long they live, even the little tetras.

I had a few shrimp escape this week. Found them crispy under the lighting

25ish is the average age for a pleco, Considering that they are almost impossible to kill in the wild when they get to that age it's been thought that they can live 70+ years

 

[Karlie]

My betta used to do that alot. He passed away of old age a few weeks ago though :'(
Does anyone have any recommended types of fish that fit into semi-small aquariams and arn't real expensive?

 

[degrassi]

Karlie wrote:

My betta used to do that alot. He passed away of old age a few weeks ago though :'(
Does anyone have any recommended types of fish that fit into semi-small aquariams and arn't real expensive?

What do you consider semi-small? How many gallons? Does the tank have a filter or heater?