jumpy fish, no lid?

[Riona]

Impulse buy, haha.  One of the stores I like had one of these guys in stock, and she came home with me tonight.  Also, got her for that juvi colouration figuring she'd end up like the yellow coris they also had and staying about the same, then found the pic and was like HOLY COW!  MUST KEEP HAPPY!  The adults are super cool.  The sort of fish I figured I wouldn't be able to afford ever, LOL!

 

I'm currently sort-of topless (**covers self with blankets**  Oi, ya pervs!)  I've got egg crate on it, but obviously those holes are big enough she could easily get through.  I'm still not full in the tank, and have the water probably 2" below the rim, which is another 1-2" above the water line.  Until I can get a BRS order in to get some screen and (finally >_> ) make a top, is that good enough, or should I pull a bit more water out to make it less likely that she could find a little spot to get out from?  Also, when I'm making the screen top, how tiny should I try to make the gaps?  I was thinking about cutting out spots for the light, but that'll just rest on the rim so they won't be over water, and I'll need a spot out for the powerhead wires and eventually when I figure out what sort I'll be going with an overflow to create a little display fuge.  Are they like eels or octopi where they seem to try to find the smallest of openings to squeeze out of, or is it more an unlucky fish was startled/hit the wrong spot and ended up fish jerky?

[jambon]

Some fish are very accurate at jumping... Not sure what species you are speaking about without a pic. There are a few options to make your own cover if you want to get creative. 

   Inovative Marine has a kit for a lid available I think.

[Tamberav]

fish can see an aim for holes. You want a nice fitting lid. Wrasse are definitely jumpers. 
 

I don’t believe the kit BRS stuff accommodates lights and such. So you may want to check out a different kit. I believe jumpguard does or sells pieces for cut outs. 

[jservedio]

Mesh lids really don't block a whole lot of light and are probably your best bet - there is no need to make cutouts for the light. You can DIY your own BRS-style kit by picking up a roll of 1/4"-1/2" clear or black mesh screening and stopping at HD or Lowes for some aluminum screen frame, a bag of corners, a roll of spline, and a spline roller for quite a bit less than a BRS kit, but since you'll have as many corners as you need, you can make a cutout for your wires or an internal overflow if you've got one. I had an HOB overflow on my tank and the BRS kit wouldn't work with it so I just DIY'ed it. It's incredibly easy to do and will look exactly the same as the BRS kit when you are finished unlike most DIY projects! I'll see if I can dig up a photo of it, but wasn't taking a ton of photos way back then.

 

After your fish settles in, you may get lucky and find that you are okay without a lid. I had a Melanurus in my tank for around 7 years and I took the lid off after the first year or so because he was super chill and never spooked or jumped.

[Riona]

8 hours ago, jservedio said:

there is no need to make cutouts for the light.

Yeah, but my lights literally sit on the tank's rim.  If I don't make a cutout for it, I can't take the thing off/replace it without manhandling the lights, and that's a big enough pain with the egg crate.  I was just planning to use their mesh since I don't have a local source for it and get the rest from Lowe's.  For the corner where my wires come out, since I'm not sure the corner pieces will be super tight, could I leave a bit of extra mesh over them to sort of cover the gap, even if it's not tight?

 

@jambon  The underlined text in the first post has a link to what she looks like now and will look like as an adult.  This is the best I could get of mine, though.  She's super hyperactive.  Also is a cameo by the bigger damsel, who is utterly confused by her, it seems, and you can see some of the mermaid's wineglass+the bigger of my rock nems in the background.

[spectra]

Well...... I was a wrasse man when I had my bigger tanks and am also a rimless tank guy so no lids....... fish only jump once and yes I did lose a few...... but in the end most of my wrasses stayed put in the water......

 

Good luck on the wrasse its a looker...... 

[jservedio]

19 hours ago, Riona said:

Yeah, but my lights literally sit on the tank's rim.  If I don't make a cutout for it, I can't take the thing off/replace it without manhandling the lights, and that's a big enough pain with the egg crate.  I was just planning to use their mesh since I don't have a local source for it and get the rest from Lowe's.  For the corner where my wires come out, since I'm not sure the corner pieces will be super tight, could I leave a bit of extra mesh over them to sort of cover the gap, even if it's not tight?

Picture makes it much more clear - you just need to get a bunch of extra corners to make little cutouts for your light's feet and you can do the same thing in one of the corners to allow your powerhead wires to come though.

 

You can leave a little extra mesh, but it'll look sloppy. Keep in mind, you get the overlap from the inner rim on the tank, so even if the corners only allow you to get as tight as 1/2" or 1" to the outer rim, it'll only be 1/4" to 1/2" gap for a fish to jump through because of that overlap.

[Riona]

That sounds a lot safer than the current setup for sure!  Honestly a little bit of sloppiness won't kill anything.  I can barely see that corner from where I sit anyway. 

 

Thank you!