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Chevmaro 
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 Topic: Wrasse are Jumpers?
Posted: June 01 2016 at 4:59pm |
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I bought a Carpenter's Wrasse yesterday. My clowns didn't like him much, thought they would work it out. Came home from work today and found he had jumped out of the tank. Is this typical for Wrasse, or did my clowns scare him away?
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jdinchak
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Posted: June 01 2016 at 5:01pm |
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Honestly could be both. I will always have a top for my tank. You can make your own screen pretty easy. BRS has their own do it yourself kit. I have made screens for all of mine, not too bad, looks good and works well. Get the smaller plastic netting though. I had a fish jump at an angle through the 1/2" stuff.
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180G Mixed Reef Tank
170G Dart Frog Tank
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Chevmaro
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Posted: June 01 2016 at 5:06pm |
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I have never thought about covering the tank until now. I'll look into it.
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jdinchak
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Posted: June 01 2016 at 5:11pm |
You can get the kit from BRS here:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/diy-aquarium-screen-top-kits-1-8-netting.html
I got the netting and made my own. It's probably a wash. HD sells all the other supplies, definitely get plastic netting.
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180G Mixed Reef Tank
170G Dart Frog Tank
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aporter360
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Posted: June 01 2016 at 10:31pm |
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My wrasse tries jumping out at LEAST 3 times a day. She actually made it out 2-3 times while i was doing stuff to the tank with the net off. also ended up in the overflow 2-3 times so i had to cover that, then the other day she ended up on top of the overflow cover. Needless to say i have a jumper here, very common with wrasse.. I made a net out of a screen kit from home depot and 1/4in netting from brs i believe..
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54 gallon rimless mixed
EA sump
1 year running
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Reefboy4life
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Posted: June 01 2016 at 11:07pm |
 pilotx44 wrote:
My wrasse tries jumping out at LEAST 3 times a day. She actually made it out 2-3 times while i was doing stuff to the tank with the net off. also ended up in the overflow 2-3 times so i had to cover that, then the other day she ended up on top of the overflow cover. Needless to say i have a jumper here, very common with wrasse.. I made a net out of a screen kit from home depot and 1/4in netting from brs i believe.. |
what kind of wrasse do you have?
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90 gallon mixed reef
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: June 02 2016 at 9:45am |
The other option is to make the tank so comfortable that they don't jump. I know people think I'm nuts and rarely does anyone ever ask how I do it. I guess they simply pass me off as being a fool. After a lot of years and an awful lot of fish, including Wrasse and Firefish, I can count on one hand, the times fish have jumped from my tanks.
Aloha, Mark  |
Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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jdinchak
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Posted: June 02 2016 at 9:50am |
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Mark, I am just envisioning a tank with hammocks and cleaner shrimp giving massages and maybe a krill bar!
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180G Mixed Reef Tank
170G Dart Frog Tank
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: June 02 2016 at 10:29am |
 The secret is out.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: June 02 2016 at 1:11pm |
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My wrasse jump everyday. You should come over and I'll feed them. You'll get splashed on (my wife hates it).
Adam
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tileman
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Posted: June 02 2016 at 10:07pm |
I agree with Adam and Jon. It's just a matter of time before a wrasse will jump out of an uncovered tank. Not if, but when.... Mark, I just can't agree with you here. I don't care how calm and relaxed a tank is, it only takes a wrasse a quick second to get startled and their natural reaction is to jump for safety. But in an uncovered tank, it is jump to certain death. A death that can easily be avoided with the screen top netting.
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335G Reef
TOTM.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2015/2/aquarium
ReefKeepers TOTM Feb. 2012
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....k-of-the-month
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Chevmaro
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Posted: June 03 2016 at 7:43am |
Mark's fish live in a Hilton. My fish live in a Motel 6. 
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: June 03 2016 at 9:48am |
Well, I believe the difference is the opportunity to run for cover, or in other words, the number of hiding places created by the aquascaping and macroalgae. I try to provide hiding places all over the tank. I see it in all my fish, especially Firefish and Wrasse. When frightened, they will run for cover in those hiding places. They usually have a favorite spot, but in another area of the tank they will use the closest one. They become very familiar with all the spots where they can duck for cover. In the wild, I believe Wrasse do not come to the surface for food. It's in the aquarium that they learn to rise to the surface. Some get so excited that they jump for food. Adam's fish are very excitable. Also, the hungrier they are the more likely they are to break the water surface.
I believe fish also learn that they will find escape to safety if they jump. As a juvenile, a fish may have been temporarily trapped in a tidal pool and may have learned that to jump out and flop around was the way to reach deeper, open water or at least the next lower, larger tidal pool. They may have even repeated the action from pool to pool until they reached deeper, open water.
Aquascaping can be like a brick wall, or, it can be a maze of holes to duck into. Most newer hobbyists tend to pile the rock as if they were building a wall. Every hole is filled with a rock or a coral. We need to resist the urge to fill the holes. From the Reefkeeping Tips thread:
It's kind of hard to find pics that show exactly, because most of my pics focus on fish or coral, but below are a few more pics of what I'm talking about regarding making areas for fish to dart into when frightened. Though it may not seem good cover to us, fish will often dive into a thicket of Macroalgae and seem to be perfectly comfortable with the camouflage it provides.
In this former tank that was in my bay window, there was a lot of space between rocks, with many holes going all the way through. Useful features were the caves/overhangs above the sand where fish could hang out and feel safe, yet to us they were easily visible.
Above and below: Ideal rubble rock/macroalgae environments for Firefish and Wrasse, as well as Mandarin and Scooter Blenny.
Aloha, Mark
Edited by Mark Peterson - June 04 2016 at 5:05am
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: June 04 2016 at 4:48am |
Continued from above: "Useful features were the caves/overhangs above the sand where fish could hang out and feel safe, yet to us they were easily visible and didn't seem hidden at all." Though we may know exactly where the fish is and can even see it there under that overhang or hiding in that small thicket of Macroalgae, the fish seems to be content. I believe this feeling of safety may have something to do with avoiding predators in the wild. Hiding under/in something keeps them from being seen by the large predatory fish roaming above them.
Camouflage is very important in Nature. Effective camouflage to a fish, is to us a pathetic attempt at hiding. My point is that we should try to see it from the fish's perspective, try to appreciate the value of these little things for helping fish feel safe, secure and happy.
Ahh, found these pics of the tank above showing close ups of holes, caves and overhangs under shelves:
Aloha, Mark
Edited by Mark Peterson - June 04 2016 at 5:19am
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1stupidpunk
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Posted: June 04 2016 at 7:10am |
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Even with lots of hidey holes I believe wrasse and hawkfish are either jumpy or just plain suicidal. I was having a hard time making a mesh screen top for my bow front so I just cut some light diffuser (egg crate) panels to fight inside the plastic rim... not the prettiest thing ever but unless your running rimless tank its not really noticeable.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: June 04 2016 at 4:54pm |
But Mark- wrasse naturally dart up and down in the water column all the time in the wild. They do it every day as part of their mating dance.
But in my tank, it's a dart to the surface for food.
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