What the...?!?!? Crazy fish!

Well, I was sitting around, 3 Harlequin Rasboras helping to cycle the tank... One jumped out! Luckily I was nearby and managed to pick him up from the floor and stick him back in!

It's made me really paranoid, I didn't even know they were a type that had a tendency to jump!
I've stuck a textbook on top for now to cover the gap :|
The water is about an inch below the top of the tank, here's a pic of the gaps around the lid;
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What shall I do? D: I don't want to lower the water level too much, how high can they jump?! I'd add some clingfilm or something but it won't look nice
Best solution? D:
I'm in shock :|

Ive never heard of them jump before ive had 5 for over a year and never seen one jump. They need to be in groups of 4+. What are your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates levels? How many %WC are you doing? since your doing a fish in you will need to do 50% WC every day. The only reason i can think of them jumping is because the water qualities bad. Anything over .25 will damage the fish but it really should be 0.

I've got 3 in there since it's what I was advised to get by my LFS, I'm only a beginner xD They won't be in for long hopefully just until the tank is fully cycled and stable. They arrived at 5 today, did 30% at 7 and going to do 50% tomorrow morning and possibly 50% in the evening to, want to really lower the ammonia in there. It's at about 0.4, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are 10, pH about 7.5. Not the best conditions but I was told they are hardy and able to cope.
I have turned the light off now and they seem to have calmed down quite a bit, could it have been because of that too? It concerns me because I need to keep my plants (java fern and moss balls) alive - would they survive on just daylight for now?

If the ammonia is at .4 i would say thats why they jumped. The light could have made them a little timid because they where new but i doubt it would make them jump. How big is the tank?

The tank is 20l. I'm gonna go ahead and do a 50% water change now and then not fill it up quite as high, just in case. Fingers crossed the levels will even out soon.
Wish I'd just done a fishless cycle but it's hard when you're shy and being encouraged by a shop owner!

I would just cover the holes and fill it back to the top because you want as much water volume as you can get IMO.
You should have told him no and that you trust people on here more lol

Arg this is really confusing me. Took out 50%, added 50% fresh back in, treated of course, 28*C as the rest of the tank is.
Did another ammonia test and it's exactly the same! What am I doing wrong?

I dont really know what to recommend ive never cycled a tank before i just ise media from other tanks. Do you have any other tanks? if you do you can take some of the media from it and add it to the new tank and it will be instantly cycled.

Unfortunately not, I have no other tanks and I don't know anyone who does

You could ask your lfs if they have some spare some lfs will give you some.

I asked when I went in yesterday, but they said they don't sell it and just told me to get the tetra safestart and add some hardy fish a day later :/ being easy to persuade, I did..
Guess I've learnt my lesson xD

Not sure theres much else you can do apart from 50% WC a day.

I guess so. Just hope they get through it ok!

If you go into a Maidenhead Aquatics, they sell a refrigerated "bacteria" product that really seems to have good results with quite a few people I know. Might be worth getting some, if only to speed things up for poor fishies

I don't think that testing kit you have is great to be honest, looking at the photo of the result you posted yesterday - it looks like it's really difficult to determine the result. The API ones are really good, the one which is just for ammonia is about £9 from pets at home.

Then again - it's the time of year when water companies are adding stuff to the water to stabilise it, and ammonia is one of the things they use. There was a thread on here a little while ago where it was mentioned. Have you tested your tapwater for ammonia?

I'm quite surprised, it was one recommended to be by a fishkeeper on another forum, but you're right, it doesn't seem that easy to read. I'll have a test of my tap water fo' sho'

Just tested tap water, ammonia = 0 >.<
50% water change time, ammonia levels in tank still the same

Irk! Ammonia has gone UP after the water change! Someone help!!

It should go down if u measure it JUST AFTER a water change and not up, but a few hours (or even much less) afterwords it will pick up and increase more than you measured before, till after a few days it peaks and eventually starts to go down. Thats the nature of cycling, ammonia peaks then drops... nitrite peaks then drops.... nitrate goes up and up (and gets removed by the mandatory regular water changes). Thats's why i would recomend you to do at least 2 50% water changes per day... Until you get ammonia and nitrite to zero and then you can do 30% weekly. The pH at 7,5 is typical of cycling and nothing you do will change it... As for the bacteria you can add products like sera bionitrivec for instance to help. But for me, even using such a product, took me 20 days to cycle. My cycle graph lies bellow, as you can see, it aint a perfect theorical graphic as sometimes ppl state, ammonia and nitrite rise together but ammonia will give in sooner, just keep measuring:

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The 0.4ppm ammonia you are reading (with zero nitrites), indicates (to me) that you are in the early stages of cycling, fasten your seat belt, still a bumpy ride to come but you will get through it, we all do!

Cheers,
Bruno

I think the ammonia reading is being skewed massively by the Amquel + and Tetra Safestart in it. My nitrites are at 0, nitrates 10, so there's clearly a conversion going on in there. I think I'm just going to keep doing the water changes every day for as long as I can and try and figure out a way to get an accurate ammonia reading.

When testing the fresh water for changing, pure tap water has 0 ammonia, but when I add Amquel + and Tetra safestart the reading rockets up to about 6.0!

I really do think you might be better off giving the safestart the boot and just relying on a fish-in cycle... they'll produce enough ammonia on their own from their waste to feed the bacteria, it sounds like the safestart is giving you excessive levels of it.

Good news everybody! I tested the pure tap water with amquel added and the reading was crazy high for ammonia (about 6!)
I bought some stresscoat, tested the pure tap water with it added and the reading was 0 :D
Just did a 40% and now the levels are at:
Ammonia: 0.3
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2

Woo! Glad it's going well!