Best way to trap/catch an eel

[gmate]

I'm coming to the realization that I'll probably end up having to tear my tank apart for this. I have a 16" Green Wolf Eel that is perfectly friendly. He doesn't show any aggression towards other tank mates, he eats like a champ and eats anything (frozen foods, live foods, silversides krill grocery store shrimp/fish etc).

I just need him out because he's, well, clumsy. My moray stays in the rockwork until feedings. He likes to swim out in the open. Constantly. Knocking over corals, pushing them into the sandbed. He's so friendly, any time I walk in front of the tank he follows me from left to right. He's all about my hand when I'm working in the tank. If he was a dog, he'd be my loyal companion.

Well, after losing three 20 dollar frags due to him knocking them off their plug and into the sandbed over the last few weeks, he's got to go. If I had a bigger tank I might manage, but I can't lose my money like this. It's frustrating.

He's a pain to catch. He'll retreat into the rocks. It's a 55g corner tank, so I can't really divide up the tank to get to him. Short of tearing this tank apart, is there a better way to trap him? He's pretty smart. I put food into buckets/tuberware so he'd climb in, but he doesn't go for it.

Any suggestions?

 

[gmate]

He's too thick for a 2L soda bottle.

 

[olemiss reb]

Put a section of capped pvc in the tank, wait for green wolf to go in and cap the open end, lift pvc out with eel inside. I've caught at least ten eels this way.

 

[gmate]

I tried the PVC trick tonight, he refused to even go in it. I placed it under the sand bed near a rock and he avoided it like the plague. Had I given him some time (a few days) it might have worked, once he was comfortable in the tank.

Building up to tonight I hadn't fed him for a week. I tried the soda bottle trap with a twist - I cut the opposite side and then cut the top off too. I made a larger hole in a 3L soda bottle (wasted 1.50 to buy the soda and dump it, lol) and then put shrimp in it. Took him less than 3 minutes.

Now I feel like an arse for making this useless thread. It was so much easier than I thought.

 

[happyjack]

I removed my eel last saturday it took 30 seconds.A nasty filimbrated all i had to do was drop some food in and net it out whn he raced out to eat my fingers

 

[liverup]

Speargun

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

 

[RealReef7]

I went fishing last time i had to take out my 2' moray...

 

[LisaD]

wolf eels are different than morays, and really hard to catch. I had one in a regular 55, and would have had to take the tank apart to catch it.

they are great fish. no chance to grow out the frags in a different tank?

 

[gmate]

He's sitting in a 10g holding cell until I can make it to my LFS that's 45 minutes away, who have already confirmed they'll take him off my hands for store credit. I don't have any additional tanks that I can set up until I move out of my current house this year.