Fake Fish

[Woodstock]

I just had a crazy Idea!:spin2:

If a person was to find a fake fish made of reef safe plastic,

That looked just like a fish that I planned on adding in the future.

Let it dangle in the water for some time to let the existing fish get used to,
and to get their aggressive behavior towards the new comer out of their systems.

Or am I just kidding myself to think that fish are so dumb
they would fall for the Fake Fish Trick?

I'm sure I am not the first to ever think of doing something like this.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

Fish aren't the brightest bulbs in the animal kingdom chandellier but even the dumbest fish isn't going to be fooled by a fake fish IMO.

 

[geaux xman]

get a big acclimation box. it helps. mine is 12x6x6". theres a size bigger than that. i've also used egg crate to separate my fish, but i'm only able to do that b/c my rockwork is very sparse.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I'm sure I am not the first to ever think of doing something like this.

No you're probably not; although you may be the first one with the guts to post it.

 

[Woodstock]

No you're probably not; although you may be the first one with the guts to post it.

HaHa :lmao: I do remember Reading about someone here on RC using a plastic clown fish,
Trying to lure his perc into a anemone.

 

[Moort82]

If it smelt right you might have more luck.

 

[enjetek]

Fish aren't that dumb. I'm sure this would have been done if it worked, or it's cheaper just to gets mirror or print pics of similar but bigger fish out...

 

[cjtice]

But yet a clown will attack the clown in the mirror....

I think some of you guys are giving fish too much credit! They obviously dont smell that fish in the mirror.

 

[philter4]

For all of you who think fish are not that dumb I have some bad news for you, I have used this trick so many times to lure a fish out of the reef while collecting it isn't funny. Angelfish are easily tricked into coming out of their hiding holes by a dummy that is colored correctly even if the shape is wrong. The easiest way to collect neon gobies by net (most are collected with the drug quinaldine, which is legal in Florida with a permit for the tropical fish trade, and I have had other collectors argue with me that they can't be collected efficiently with nets only to be profitable until I show them how to do it) is to take a dummy fish, put it in the net and put the net up into the colony that is on a particular coral head. The territorial fish then all rush the net to drive this new individual away and you have effectively collected the bulk of the fish on that coral. To make sure you are not taking all of the available fish just use a net with a mesh that lets anything about 1/2 grown swim through and you now have just the largest individuals in the colony. Hamlets are just as easily collected by using a dummy model in the net, or even by putting the dummy in the trap and just leaving it there, when you return there are usually several in the trap and you can pick the ones you want to keep.