Do fish committ suicide?

[jneuringer]

I ask this, because I had a community reef tank (25g) with 7 green chromis, 1 blue damsel, 1 pink pseudo and 1 6-line wrasse for about 2 years. Last week the wrasse jumped out. Nothing changed.... But luckilly i was there and put him back in. He lived. Only to make a more successful jump the next day. I wasnt around. He's in porcilain heaven now..

 

Why would he do that? The water chems are good, the tank is in top shape. and it did not appear that he was being antagonized...

 

Jeremy

[Duke13]

I think there's always a chance that any fish will jump out of your tank. I dont' think he meant to commit suicide, maybe he was startled. I always make sure my tank is well covered.

 

The only thing that I know of that commits suicide would be starfish. Sometimes if they get too stressed, they become stubborn and stop eating until they starve to death.

[AzNsPeCz]

fish will jump due to stress...or scared

[NorthStar]

Reef fish are prone to suicide jumping because quite often in the wild a species will rush vertically when alarmed. In an aquarium there is far less water so it breaches the surface in an attempt to flee.

In the wild of course there is generally metres of water above them making it non lethal and unlikely to breach the water and even if it did it would land in the ocean again, but as its an aquarium they will and as you found out, unfortunatley, miss the aquarium on re-entry. Sorry for your loss.

[NorthStar]

Not all species though!

[offsprg01]

yes some fish are suicidal. then evern no and agian you'll come across a fish that is hommicidal/sucidal. my ex gave me a weever goby that reaked havoc on my tank and then committed sucide. wow it reminds me so much of her..... now that i think about it..... :D

[Cesar]

Probably your Damsel did it. He stressed your Wrasse til your fish couldn't take it and decided to take that jump. I saw at LFS a clown do that once when I got too close to take a look at him. I pointed to the tank so my son could see and the clown jumped out of the tank it was in. He must of leaped at least 6 inches above the tank. Good thing that the employee was there to see what happened.

[bobioden]

You had 10 fish in a 25 gallon tank? One a Pseudo and one a Damsel.. Major stress. I would jump too.

 

[Makana]

Hey,

 

I've never had any jumppers from my saltwater tank, but I've had 3 from my freshwater tanks. I do suspect they were all due to stress, and then there are fish that tend to jump, but I only know of a few freshwater ones (Koi, Anglefish and Flying Fish). But as the post above says, be cautious about how many fish you add, seems a bit crampted.

[greatreef16]

I kind of agree with bob, 10 fish is alot.

[JustPhish]

They don't intend to jump out of the tank. In the wild jumping is a very effective way to evade a predator or harrassment. Doesn't matter where they jump, odds are they will come back down in water. Just happens that in our tanks there's much less landing room and often they will find the floor.

 

They can jump for any reason. Loud noise, lights suddenly turning on and off, anything at all.