catching a marble wrasse

[Chiwee]

I am not sure this is the right place for it but here we go.

I really love my marble wrasse, It is one of the most beautiful fish in my tank....except it is a @#$#$ murderer :mad2: I have so many fish killed by it I have to get rid of it. The problem is, it is impossible to catch it with net even if I remove all the rocks cuz it'll just dive into my deep sand bed and vanish. Does any of you have any suggestion on how I can catch it? I found some fish traps online but I am not sure if they work or which one to buy. It would be nice if someone has first hand experience can give me some insight on this. I don't want to give it back to the fish store so If I can catch it I wonder if any of you have a home for it. It's about 5-6 inches long, and I live in Southern California.

P.S. I notice it will attack it's mirror image if I put a mirror next to the tank, I wonder if I can use it to lure it into a trap.

 

[Ryan-UF]

Store traps are good but I have always made my own:

I prefer an empty plastic bottle with the top cut off, making a 1-end-closed cylinder. In the past I have filled my salinity meter with sand and used it as a door to trap them, guillotine style, through a slit in the cylinder. Tie a string to it running out the top of the tank (propped barely open) and into a stand-cabinet door. Bait the back of the cylinder. When the fish swims in, open the cabinet door releasing the string and dropping the salinity meter into place.

I hope that makes sense? Another method is to invert the top of a bottle into the base and bait that, but if it works while you're not watching the tank you will have a very angry (possibly injured) fish when you return.

I like my method because you can leave it unattended and the fish can get used to it. Surprisingly it works like a champ. Had a wrasse get past it only once, but went in again later and was easily caught. Also having the canopy closed seems to be a comfort factor.

Hope this helps!

 

[BFG]

I removed all of my rocks and use 2 nets when I wanted to get rid of my large green wrasse. I even removed half of my sand bed too!

 

[cjtice]

I recently had to catch a juvi out of my 30 to give it to someone else. The bottle trap didn't work at all.

I had to remove all the rock in the area that he buried himself and then laid a large net on top of the sand and used a smaller net to go under the sand. He shot out of the sand and right into the large net. Now he resides in a nice large fowlr tank with a bunch of large tangs and angels.

Good luck!

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I used the two liter bottle trap to catch my wrasse. I squirted mysis into it, but the wrasse wouldn't go in it. I left the room for a few minutes then checked the tank and the wrasse was in the trap.