Introduction
Naturally, koi fish must remain in the water to survive. Therefore, it might be perplexing when they appear to be adamant about jumping out of the water, which frequently results in their demise unless we can swiftly bring them back in. Although it may appear that the fish are jumping out of a perfectly good pond, a Koi fish usually jumps when the water is disturbed.
It can take some trial and error to identify the issue. Before you find a solution that works, you’ll probably need to test a few different ones. At that time, you’ll understand why your fish were jumping.
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Koi Fish Jump Out of Water for Various Reasons
1 – Water of Poor Quality
Fish may try to jump out of your water if the quality is bad. This occurs frequently because the water is so obviously uncomfortable that people often try to get out of it. If the fish can jump into a new body of water, this might help them in the wild. The fish might be able to leap back into the main section of the river if they become stuck in a puddle, which is frequently the cause of poor water quality.
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2 – absence of oxygen
For koi fish to survive, the water must have oxygen. They probably won’t be able to breathe if your water isn’t adequately oxygenated. They might jump in an effort to locate air somewhere else. This might support them in the wild. Fish can get caught in small pools that might not have enough oxygen during a drought. They can jump back into the river’s main body, where currents will speed up the river’s circulation.
3 – Aggression
Fish may leap to avoid conflict. You’ll probably choose the first option if you have to choose between being devoured or jumping into another pool after jumping into the pond. Normally, koi fish are not aggressive. When reproducing, they might, however, dart around vigourously. The fish may flee while being pursued and land outside of the pond by jumping out of the water.
4 – Exploring
Koi fish have a natural curiosity, thus they might jump out of the water to investigate something. This is more likely to happen to some fish than others. The fish may continue to do it or do it more frequently if they have successfully leaped out of the water and received a reward.
The fish don’t always benefit from this, either. Since they typically aren’t precise with their jumps, it’s not unusual for them to unintentionally fail to land back in the water.
5 – Conditioning
It is normal to “reward” fish with food when they jump out of the water. After all, when a Koi fish exits the pond, many owners are highly impressed. It’s easy to confuse this generally acceptable action for affection. This is particularly important if you handfeed the fish since they could start to associate people and jumping with food.
As a result, fish may begin to jump when they notice someone nearby in an effort to grab food. You might have taught your fish to jump out of the water in this situation. Fortunately, they frequently won’t do this when no one is nearby, so there is little chance that they will truly suffer harm from the jump.
6 – Predation
In an effort to flee predators, including those beyond the pond, certain fish may jump. Cats, raccoons, birds, otters, and even coyotes, for instance, might try to catch a food from a Koi pond. Since these attacks frequently occur at night, unless you have a camera set up, you might not even be aware of the issue.
Of course, predators can result in a wide range of issues. In addition to directly causing their deaths, it can cause the fish stress. Fish can sustain injuries that make them more vulnerable to bacterial illnesses even if they are not consumed.
Conclusion
It can be upsetting to see your Koi fish jump out of the water. They risk dying if they stay out of the water, after all. Jumping habits are typically brought on by poor water quality or a shortage of oxygen, both of which are easily fixable. Other potential issues include fish being threatened by predators and fish fighting among themselves.
We advise testing your water first to see if there is an issue. Most likely, you’ll discover that the water is either too low in oxygen or too high in a toxin like ammonia. After that, you can start fixing the issue.
