Engineering Goby jumper

[nemirn]

Has anyone here ever heard of an Engineering Goby (Convict Blenny) jumping out of a tank?

This morning my found an extremely lucky EG in my sump. My first thought was that he had somehow gotten into the overflow and slid into the sump. But he was in a section of the sump which was separated from the other section by a dense sponge.

The tank is partially covered by the light.... so there is a 36" opening along the front and rear edges, and only about a 2.5" opening on the side edges.

He just happened to jump out of one of the side edges, and it was the one next to the sump. My sump sits next to my tank. I am pretty amazed that he was so lucky.

I don't know what would make him jump? Do you? He spends the majority of his time in his network of underground tunnels. The puffers are never aggressive towards other fish, and the Lawnmower Blenny is only territorial during feeding time. I am guessing that maybe the EG collided with the urchin during a night prowl and freaked out...

Here are some pics.

These are my tanks (a 20g long which overflows into the 30g long which overflows in the sump on the left side). The EG lives in the bottom tank with 2 Green Spotted Puffers, a Lawnmower Blenny, and a Black Spiny Urchin.

The bright slot is the opening through which the EG must have jumped.

Here's the topdown of the sump:

And here's the EG gathering his wits in the sump:

[JamesL]

As with any fish, something might have spooked him at night. I have had wrasses, jawfish (they are notoriously skittish), clowns, you name it jump or try to jump out of the tank.

[+KimP]

What a lucky fish! I don't know how he managed to do that.