Diamond Watchman Escape

[brclark82]

I bought a new Diamond watchmen yesterday and acclimation went well and he found himself a nice little burrow and I saw his head sticking out of it as I went to bed last night.

This morning I found him on the floor (sad face)

I have one of those glass lids that covers about 80% of the top and then has a piece of plastic you can cut to fit the rest.

I have 2 HOB filters and I have cut the plastic to cover every single gap possible very tightly except the overflow for the HOB’s. And on those it is cut to fit right up against the plastic of the HOB with the only way for a fish to escape is to swim up the overflow stream. These things put out 500 gal/hr and evidently the little guy was able to swim up and out even through that fairly strong flow for such a little fish.

Just thought I’d put that out there for anyone doing research.

Now I’m trying to figure out some solution so none of my other fish escape!

 

[Idoc]

I lost 2 Diamond Gobies in quarantine to jumping through a small slit opening near the HOB filter.

Next time, reduce the amount of water in your quarantine tank so that it is about 4-6 inches below the level of the lid. Then, they won't be able to jump high enough and accurately enough to get out of the quarantine tank. After getting them into the main tank, the jumping issues stopped. I think that is because they are less stressed in a deeper water environment and more sand substrate/rocks for cover.