fish jumping deaths

I was reading through the thread "how many have you lost?" and noticed that a lot of people have lost fish due to jumping. What does that mean exactly? Do they jump out of the tank, or knock themselves out on the hood? I'm confused. How can you prevent this from happening?

 

A lot of people keep open top tanks for aesthetic reasons. Also, an open top tank allows for more oxygen to enter the water. Some fish are prone to jumping (gobies, wrasses, etc.) and some jump because of dyanmics within the tank (bad water, aggression, etc.). So when people say their fish jumped, it means it leapt out the top of the tank and ended up on the floor.

To prevent it you need some type of tight fitting lid, but make sure whatever lid you choose allows oxygen to enter the tank.

 

most reef tanks are wide open.. no plastic cover or glass.. some fish jump naturally.. some get chased by other fish and jump on accident. I've only lost a 3' long snowflake eel out of the top of my tank back in 2000. was gone for 1 week. and mr. eel decided to swim out of water to his death..
some people use insect screen to keep fish in the tank.

 

When I started, I lost two male true perculas due to an aggressive female. She'd chase them out during lights out. What we ended up doing was cutting some acrylic in a u-shap to cover the front and sides of the tank. It is 2 1/2in wide on each side. The back isn't a worry since all of our HOB equipment will block out any jumpers. Almost one year later, we still have our male though he did lose a bit of fin in the first few weeks from our chompy female.

 

I lost my sixline wrasse. I heard flipping nose at night but thought it was random water nose from the tank. Sadly, when I couldn't find him in the tank the next morning, I looked around and found him on the floor. The flipping nose I heard last night was apparently struggling sixline on the floor.

There is 2" x 4" opening at the back of the hood for heater and filter return pipe.