Swordtails jumping out: how low do I need to go?

[PineSong]

I’ve learned a hard lesson with the koi swordtails in my QT tank: even a gap of much less than half an inch between the glass lid and the tank has ended with dried out fish discovered on the floor in the morning.
I now have a larger lid over top of the lid that came with the tank so there’s no gaps at all, but I bought these fish for my summer tub pond. How far below the rim will I need to keep the water line in order to not have all my fish end up in the grass? I’m wondering if I should nix the idea of swordtails in the pond. It’s a 110g stock tank.

[anewbie]

They can jump fairly high; at least 6 inches; probably more. The bigger question is why it jumped. The ones i have in my 29 the past 5 years haven't jumped at all but a long long time ago when i was clueless and but 1/2 as tall as i am now we had some that jumped out. I don't think under normal condition they will jump but if the water is bad or something startled them they will.... 

[PineSong]

They have only jumped out at night and the tank is in my bedroom so I know that it has been dark and quiet. Water parameters are good. The tank is loaded with guppy grass but it is a small tank (5g). I got stuck using it as a QT tank because my 10 gallon QT was already in use. Maybe it’s just too small for them?

[anewbie]

If they are adults - definitely way too small. I would also be worried about ammonia spike. You would be much better off with a plastic container (tote)  they come in various sizes up to 80+ gallons and are generally very inexpensive. A 20-40 gallon one should be between $8 and $16 (though i've not priced them since the panademic so things might have changed - they could be found at homedepot, target, wallmart, lowes, .... If the fishes are frys then a 5 is ok but adult swordtails are between 3 and 7 inches depending on how you measure them and type.

Edited May 8, 2022 by anewbie

[nabokovfan87]

Just get a lid if you can.

Mesh net also works and can be super nice if you look up some of the places that make those for SW tanks.

 

[anewbie]

You can also use door screening (fiberglass); it is cheap - $3 or less - and quite flexible. I use a bit on one of my tank where i had jumpers popping out of holes in the lid in the back.

[PineSong]

On 5/8/2022 at 2:16 PM, anewbie said:

If they are adults - definitely way too small. I would also be worried about ammonia spike. You would be much better off with a plastic container (tote)  they come in various sizes up to 80+ gallons and are generally very inexpensive. A 20-40 gallon one should be between $8 and $16 (though i've not priced them since the panademic so things might have changed - they could be found at homedepot, target, wallmart, lowes, .... If the fishes are frys then a 5 is ok but adult swordtails are between 3 and 7 inches depending on how you measure them and type.

Thank you. They are not adults. They were about 1" long when they arrived, they are about 1.5" now and there are 4 of them. The tank is loaded with guppy grass and duckweed; I do a 30-50% change 2x a week on it because it is so small. So I don't believe it's a water quality issue and although the room is dark at night, maybe something like people getting up to go to the bathroom is startling them.

I just can't believe they could jump out through the small gap between lid and tank, but I do believe it as I saw the results.

I've thought about the plastic tote idea since I saw Rachel O'Leary's vid on it, but I'm nervous about not being able to see the fish from the side. 

Technically, they've been here more than a month and don't need to be in QT anymore, but the pond isn't ready. I could put them in my male guppy 29g to wait for warmer weather but TBH I'm afraid those terribly harrassing guppies will pester them to death. 

I will drop the water level in the pond 6+ inches if I do put them in. Meanwhile, they are covered with two glass lids now so unless they can teleport, they should be safe. Very sad lesson I don't want to repeat. 

[gardenman]

Swordtails are very efficient jumpers. If you have one jumpy fish it'll sometimes set off a chain reaction too. My fifty-gallon tank has way too many swordtails in it and they're pretty chill most of the time, but if I startle them and one jumps the top of the tank becomes a boiling mass of jumping swordtails as everyone else in the tank assumes he jumped for a reason so they should jump too. It's kind of neat to watch. All it takes is one jumper to trigger a mass jumping.

[anewbie]

group panic. When i was in college a setup a swordtail tank for my gf (she squeeled a lot the first time they had frys and the females started chasing her frys) - it was a great tank - we didn't know a thing about tanks back then - but they took to the tank along with the plants we threw in the top - and by the end of the school year we must have had 20 or 30 of them in various sizes and miles long of plants - back then we didn't know about water changes or water chemistry - we just topped it off as water evaporated - it was near a window and had no dedicated light. Also strangely enough it had no algae - probably the swordtails at it all. Oh well those were the fun days - we took them all to the pet shop when she moved out of the dorm. It is really amazing how many swordtails you can cram into a tank in  9 months.

[PineSong]

I think a big part of them being comfy in the pond will be plant cover. The floaters I put in there have not taken off, so I'll need to get those up and running before I add fish. I've adjusted my plan to see this as a learning year with the pond and if it's not fish-ready in time for fish to go out this year, at least I'll be better equipped for next year. I want it to be pretty, not grisly!