Discus Jumping Out of the Tank

[dntx5b9]

Not sure how common it is, but I lost a discus few weeks ago when it jumped out of the tank. It got spooked or whatever the reason was going nuts darting around the tank and it finally jumped out of the tank and when I found him on the floor, he was breathing, but dried up. Put him in the tank, but died the next morning. He was a nice one, too. Anyhow, it was the third discus I lost over the last few months that died after darting around the tank like crazy.

Anyhow, just last weekend, I had lots of people over at my place for a get together, and all the movement and people apparently spooked my discus. At one point all of my discus were darting around the tank like crazy and one jumped out of the tank. Luckly, I was there to witness and put him back in the tank. I covered the tank with a blanket for rest of the day and luckly the guy jumped out is doing fine like nothing ever happened. Then, my wife tells me that our house cleaner told her this past Sunday whether we found a dead fish in the discus tank, and apparently one of them jumped out while she was cleaning the house. She put the fish back in (not within her job description) and I never knew anything ever happened.

Sorry for the long psot, but does this happen often with discus? My tank is covered but not in the back where filters and heaters are located. I guess I will have cover the entire tank...

[Merrilyn]

What a shame. So sorry to hear of that.

Yes unfortunately discus can become spooked, and they will jump out of even the smallest hole. Covering the entire tank is the only way to prevent escape.

I think you should look a bit further for the reason why your fish are jumping and darting around the tank.

It's usually a water problem of some kind. Either a ammonia or maybe a bacteria problem. It could even be a stray electrical leakage into the tank. You will know there's an electrical problem if you ever have a cut finger and do some work on your tank. A mild to sharp tingling at the site of the cut indicates a problem.

A bacterial problem can be corrected by adding a good UV to the filter, and of course an ammonia problem means you need to do larger and more frequent water changes.