About 3 years ago I received my first fish tank for my birthday. It was a 20 gallon starter kit by Hagen. So that night I set out putting together the tank. I assembled the filter and cut the lid, although I cut one extra openning that I was not supposed to cut. So I thought ah, no problem, fish don’t jump and certainly not through such a small hole. So later that night I filled my tank with water and let it run for a few days.
Then a couple days later I purchased some fish from my local pet store (I didn't know I had to cycle the tank for a few weeks). I bought 5 neons, a rainbow shark, some platys and a few swordtails. I introduced the fish to my tank and I watched them for about an hour, then I turned off the aquarium light and went to bed.
Then, around 11:00 pm, about 1 hour after I had gone to bed, I got up and went to go get a drink, and on my way out of my room I stepped on something squishy. Not knowing what it was I flicked on the lights and to my horror a little velvet swordtail was stuck to my feet. Amazingly he survived the four foot drop to the floor and wriggled almost 6 feet away from the tank. After I stepped on him I noticed that he was still alive, though barely, so I put him back in the tank. But sad to say he did not make it and that was my first fish fatality.
