Jumping

[FishQueen]

Tovi, my female, learned quite quickly to jump for food. Once I was distracted while feeding her and she jumped. I've tried to discourage it, but I'm nnot sure how. About a week or two ago, she jumped the divider to Trumpet, my male's, side during feeding time. I quickly netted her and put her back. One person suggested tapping on the tank when she jumps for food. Is this a good idea? I just don't want her hurt if she jumps while I'm away. And yes, the tank has a lid, and only the food opening was open when she jumped.

[Brandi]

Aww, I love when my guys jump for food, but that's a good point, if you have a divided tank that might be a really bad idea.

I'm not sure about tapping on the tank, you wouldn't really want to risk startling her, that could make feeding a negative experience. I would say just distract her some way. Never trained a fish but I do dog training and the best way to break an unwanted behavior is to condition a new desirable one in place of the unwanted one. If she'll do something like follow your finger maybe you could have her follow a finger down the glass while you drop the food in with the other hand. Eventually she'd come to learn that when she follows your finger around she gets a treat. Anything really to pull her attention away from the the food while you drop it in.

[ana]

can she get through when the food opening is closed?

ive heard about this so much it discourages me from ever considering a divided tank, especially for males

from what ive heard, if she does get through the males in more danger than she is, females tend to be very aggressive toward males, not so much vice versa

if she can get through when the opening is closed is there a way that you could extend it higher, the divider? maybe using some aquarium sealant to attach a bit of mesh higher up

[FishQueen]

hmm. She does follow my finger sometimes. I'll try that. The problem is that I didn't actually see her jump to know if she would be able to jump with the lid closed. I think if I added any more mesh that it would be too close to the light. And I'm not so sure about Tovi being more aggressive than Trumpet. Tovi is really sweet and seemed awfully shooken up when she jumped. Then Trumpet made a nip at her right before I netted her. Soooo I'm not sure about that, although I know ONE of them would be in danger. Anyway, I'll let you know if the finger trick works!