If you have any space that you THINK you oscar may be able to get out of, FIX it. I just lost my red out of a two inch gap. It's my fault i should have had it covered...
No fun losing a fish, now to try and find one that will be the same size.

how very true.
Sorry for your loss.
How big was he and was he your only O?
we have had quite a lot of Oscar deaths in the past year, due to jumping fish.
Even by very expierenced oscar keepers.
I even close the lids if i have to leave the tank during maintenance nowadays.
O's will be looking for food everywhere they can go,even above the water surface.
I guess it's a hard lesson and thanx for posting .
Let's hope someone reading this will take proper actions and save their fish in advance.
I had a 8"carp jump into the overflow of my tank.
Since that moment my tank is sealed shut.

Were you home when it happened or did you find him out of the tank when you came home?

He was 8" only had him for 3 mounths. I have a good size hood on the tank but the gap behind the light and the tank had my attention, for good reason. He was in with with an 11' lutino who was starting to show some agression be it breeding or other. May have been the cause but i don't know for sure.
I had come home and went to the back to lay down for a bit, came out and turned on the tank lights and figurged out he was missing... Had to peal him off the floor of the tank stand...Sucks

Sorry Tido ((( I have had a oscar leave my tank while water changing lucky I was there at the time. quite right about the warning it has happened to a few members.

I lost one two weeks ago from suicide also, but he was only about 4" and went through a 1.5 inch gap at the back. An 8" had to hit the gap just right. Sorry for your loss.. It may be hard to find something that your 11" won't beat up on. What else do you have in the tank now?

Sorry to hear about that. It must really suck when your fish decide to be suicide b
omer's

sorry for the loss....

if you guys feel the pain of losing your o after being with them for a while,
how much more for someone like me who had been watching the o laid eggs. i lost
the first one when my son fed it with chicken giblets...and the other one lost
due to forgetfulness...i clean the glass and forgot to slide close the lid...
i found it on the floor the following morning...

but that is life...

sorry to hear about your loss......

It seems that fish jumping out of their tanks is becoming a more common occurrence. I've never had a problem myself because my lids have always been very secure. I have put a little bit of information on the website regarding exactly this problem. I have heard of people using Velcro to secure lids, as well as leaving heavy objects on top as well. Let's have a few suggestions at how people secure their lids properly, I may put some of them on the website if they are any good.

i lost a 4" oscar, and a 11" long dragon goby thru a crack between the hood and filter... now i have placed some custom cut wooden pieces to fill that void and prevent it from happening again. it always sucks to loose a fish to something as trivial as a crack in the lid.

OFL wrote:

Hmm I'm not an expern on this, but I noticed someone say that maybe its because they're searching for food? Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to have ghost shrimp, or the frowned apon feeder rosy reds in the tank to keep the oscar ocupied with them if it ever gets hungry? I used to have the same issue. I had channel catfish in my tank, a bottom feeder, not aggressive, every single on jumped out. I have a screen on my tank now, I fabricated a lot. With it though, I cut sections out of the lid so if there was anything in the way it would fit over it nice and flush. I also added 1oz sinker weights to each corner, it actually dosent look shabby or terrible, you could use different things tho. Hope this helps, it helped me out.

We hear this time and again. Oscars can and often do jump. I recommend have sliding cover glass and a nice wooden top (you can suspend lights from this too). The weight of the wood should be enough to stop any escape attempts.