What fish are top jumpers in your experience?

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I've gotta ask: how do snails jump? :) Yeah, yeah, I know: sloooooooowly...

I'm pretty cautious about covering all tanks. Aside from a few small fish like Swordtails, Tiger Barbs and Paradise Fish, I've lost very few to jumping. My two worst losses were my first Arowana, who jumped not only out of his tank but all the way down a flight of stairs from the second floor to the ground floor about 40 years ago, and a beautiful Red Wolffish just recently who managed to knock askew a lid weighted with a rock. Those two losses really stung me.

Now, if we were talking about reptile escapes, I would have stories...:) Fish jump and die; you might find a desicated corpse at some time in the future, or if you are lucky you find a still-living fish and rescue it.

Reptiles are master escape artists, especially snakes, and can and do survive for long periods right under your nose. You haven't lived until you are sitting with your wife having dinner...and spot a 6- or 8-foot snake slithering across the floor behind her. The effort that must go into casually getting up and collecting the serpent without alerting the lady...wow...now that's living! :)
 
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Bettas. I've had those mofos find a way to jump though the 1" friggen feeding hole in an otherwise full coverage canopy. For real. Pissed me right the hell off every time I walked into my betta fish room and found one on the floor - especially since they were like $100 each bettas lol.
 
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FINWIN said:
My list

1. acaras-champion jumpers. Will hurl themselves anywhere. Across the room and into the next room. Had one leap from both hands!! Another flew straight into the garbage disposal from a tub.
2. blue gouramis-don't have the body muscle of acaras to flop but will throw themselves several feet. I found a missing one dried up between paperbacks on my bookshelf, stuck.
3. honduran red points- always seem to lose a juvie or two during tank breakdowns. They leap out and land on the floor behind tanks. Can flip backwards and sideways too. Had one adult jump into a sink from a holding tank and another jump from a tank down into a tub. Named him Lucky.
4. guppies-can and will take random flips.
5. synos- pretty rare but had one jump. Found one leaning against a tub standing on his tail. Like dried out bacon.
6. pleco - had one that took a leap and disappeared into the walls of my parents house. Never found but could smell it for 3 days. Call Alfred Hitchcock.

honorable mention
goldfish
apple snails

Non jumpers
tetras
Parrots
Oscar (if Brick ever manages to jump you'll find me on the floor with him).
Click to expand...
Wolf fish are hands down the best jumpers from my experience
 
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I haven't kept that many different species so my experience with jumpers is limited. Out of the ones I have kept though I'd say bala sharks and chalceus are definitely up there with species which require an extremely sturdy lid. Though I will also say that they only try and jump when suddenly startled.

And I once had a large lemonfin barb which I was temporarily holding in a large tub. The water must have only been about 14" deep but boy did that guy muster up some energy. It flung itself high into the air in the living room. The wife and I heard the commotion and immediately glanced over. It was like slow motion. Both our gazes were firmly fixed on superbarb as it hurtled past us.

Me and the wife were momentarily tempted to get the score cards out but when it suddenly splatted on the hardwood floor i chose to rescue it instead! And the tough little sod was right as rain when I put it back it it's tub...this time with a heavily weighted section of plywood on top!
 
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