Best method of catching a stubborn fish in established reef tank?

[Jloebenberg]

Pulling all my fish to out in QT to treat my display and subsequent fish for ich, but my Royal Gramma has continued to outsmart me. Here's what I've tried, two net approach, the feed and net switcheroo, and also the midnight flashlight blinding nab. I really don't want to have to tear my tank apart and risk kybcorals health. Any suggestions? TIA.

 

[Rover88]

I took netting that I had used for my screen and weighed it down with rocks to section off the tank. I made sure to corral my stubborn fish (A wrasse) as far to one side of the tank as I could, and I carefully moved the net-wall closer until I felt comfortable enough in catching him in the small space left. This also worked on a tailspot blenny, but because he dove into a rock I had to chase him around until he dove into one I could easily remove from the tank, then it was as simple as just finding the hole he was in and poking him out of it with the rock upside down.

Probably traumatized the hell out of him, but it worked.

 

[heritage]

Try a fish trap

 

[journeyman]

I used an inverted bottle trap method to catch a wrasse. Maybe it'll work south a royal gramma.

Take a plastic bottle. Cut the top off below the neck and invert and put the top back into the cut out bottle. Put some tasty food inside and put it back upright in the tank.

When the fish goes into the bottle for the food you can take it out. The fish usually swims down away from your hands and deeper into the bottle.

thesimplereef.com

 

[Rover88]

I used an inverted bottle trap method to catch a wrasse. Maybe it'll work south a royal gramma.

Take a plastic bottle. Cut the top off below the neck and invert and put the top back into the cut out bottle. Put some tasty food inside and put it back upright in the tank.

When the fish goes into the bottle for the food you can take it out. The fish usually swims down away from your hands and deeper into the bottle.

thesimplereef.com

Hehe. I had a yellow coris wrasse that dove into the sand and ignored the trap. Wound up catching it by flipping the trap -over- and putting it loosely over the sand before disturbing it. Coris bolted out of the sand, straight up into the trap.

 

[ZenGuitarGuy]

I had to remove nearly all my rock to catch a fairy wrasse. I still needed two nets to do it--one net to corral it into the larger. It still took a while.

 

[shaginwagon13]

I use a plastic beer jug that is decently large to feed my fish. When I feed, I submerge the entire beaker and almost all the fish will swim right into the jog to eat.

If I ever need to catch one, its as simple as waiting for the one I need to get swims in, I lift the jug out of the water, and its as simple as that.

 

[AlSimmons]

How big is the DT? If it's not a huge tank the High & Dry method outlined in the link below has always worked well for me.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/sp/index.php

 

[BigT75]

I have the aqua medic trap yeah cost $70 yeah took my smart fish 3 days but it worked


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[Rover88]

I have the aqua medic trap yeah cost $70 yeah took my smart fish 3 days but it worked


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I tried this, it could not catch a wrasse, lamarcks angel, or a tang.

When they did go in (The wrasse never did, but the other two did) they got out of it faster then the 'gate' could drop, even when they were all the way in the back. I was laying on the floor out of sight with a piece of fishing wire in hand, and they still bolted out.

 

[shellsea]

Inverted bottle trick for me. just got a dottyback that was a challenge. Did not feed for a couple days. Put small amount of food in bottle, after about an hour he couldn't stand it anymore and went right in.

 

[Jloebenberg]

I appreciate all the help y’all! I’m currently trying a bottle trap combined with no feeding. I have corals and don’t really want to try to figure a way to get them all happy in a tub of some sort. I’ll let you know how it works.

 

[sfdan]

I had a lot of luck with the aqua medic trap. In the couple weeks I've used it to catch a kole tang, two clownfish (at once), two scooter dragonets (at once), a lawnmower blenny and a yellow wrasse. All the individual fish were easy, but even the times where I wanted to keep pairs together it wasn't that hard, just required a little more patience.

I put the trap in and fed the fish exclusively in the trap for 2 weeks before starting to catch any of them. In fact when I needed to catch the tang, I didn't even need to put food in, the tang just swam right into the trap when I put it in the tank, expecting food! Two weeks is probably overkill, but I think with any type of trap you want to make sure the fish get comfortable with it before trying to use it to catch them.

I tried this, it could not catch a wrasse, lamarcks angel, or a tang.

When they did go in (The wrasse never did, but the other two did) they got out of it faster then the 'gate' could drop, even when they were all the way in the back. I was laying on the floor out of sight with a piece of fishing wire in hand, and they still bolted out.

When I was catching all my fish, I'd have the gate under tension with the fishing line, and when the fish were in the trap I'd slowly lower the glass gate and then drop it when the gate was like 1" off the ground. Never had any fish swim out (or get smashed by the glass which was my primary concern).

 

[Joe0813]

Put a trap in the tank, don't feed the tank for about five days, feed his favorite food in the trap. Sit and wait

 

[Timfish]

https://www.amazon.com/Gamakatsu-Ba...TF8&qid=1530836480&sr=1-1&keywords=midge+hook

 

[artieg]

Take water out. That was the last resort for me.

 

[Valentini89]

Take water out. That was the last resort for me.

Yeah that's an easy way. Time consuming on a big tank though, and costly.

 

[moondoggy4]

^^^^ Not costly just put the water back.

 

[Nimitz87]

small fly fish hook with the barb removed and your favorite mysis shrimp on it.

I've also had good luck stunning them with a high lumen strobe light.

 

[Jloebenberg]

I got the little guy out. I made a trap out of a Gatorade bottle and put it facing his favorite sleeping crevice. Right before the lights came on I put a net by his back and he swam straight in. Banged around pretty good so he’s a little stunned. Hopefully his time in QT with be smooth and he recovers fine. Thanks again for the sudgestikns.