I want to know why fish try to jump out of water when they are sick?

Question

I have noticed in my 12 years of fish keeping experience that anytime a fish is sick or about to die, it is an instinct to try to jump out of the tank or freak out, can anyone explain this???

Answer 1

Nope, fish jump out for other reasons.

1. It's being pursued.
2. The water parameters are bad or very bad.
3. There is a power leak in your tank.

Normally it's 2, so when you put the fish back. It's health deteriorate and catches some disease and it dies. :) That probably why you conclude that the fish is sick but it's the other way around.

.

Answer 2

I have had this happen to me on 3 occasions and they were all associated with water changes, once I did a complete water change and my sharks started jumping out, again with a new tank and I put the fish in too soon, and again with a cleaning, by mistake I did a 75% water change.

Anytime I have a fish problem, I call petco and speak with someone from the fish department, sometimes they love fish and will give you great information.

Answer 3

I've never heard of this and I've owned fish for quite some time. I've had sick fish in the past and they've never tried to jump out.

But if your fish are jumping out, maybe they are thinking a new environment would help their sickness. Or maybe your fish just hate you and are trying to escape or committ suicide jk.

Answer 4

When my fish got sick, he kept trying to jump out of the water, this is not a dumb question, i don tknow why people think it is

I dont know the answer, but some fish do jump out of water when they are sick

Answer 5

I never heard of that before, but if it is true, I would imagine it is nature's way to prevent any further sickness or contamination being spread to other fish and neighbouring water life.

Cats, with what is called "Dumb Rabies" just go away and die. Sad, but a peaceful way not to contaminate the place they lived.

Answer 6

Fish usually are trying to get out of dirty water when they jump.

Answer 7

fish tend to cull the shoal of sick fish so perhaps its getting picked on and then jumps? my experience is jumpy fish will jump at any given time just because they can.