Help catching Kole Tang

[new2SW]

So I have a buddy who is trying to catch a tang out of his tank. We have had no luck for the last week in netting this guy every time we get close to the tank to put a net in, it bolts for the rocks and hides. We've tried setting the nets in the tank and letting it get used to the nets being in the tank to no avail. Does anyone have a better approach?

 

[danielbui23]

How big is the tank?

 

[spieszak]

nori in a bottle trap?

 

[RDHDDRAGON]

We caught ours with a 2 Liter soda bottle trap. Put the Nori on the seaweed clip inside the bottle and then used the glass magnet cleaner to hold the bottle against the glass up where we usually feed them.

When we tried just putting the nori in the trap it floated to the top of the bottle and they just kept trying to pick at it through the plastic!

THey wouldn't go in it at the bottom of the tank either. We put the inside magnet part inside the bottle to hold the trap closer to the top of the tank. This made it easier to catch them too. Once they got inside and started eating I slowly turned the magnet so it turned the whole trap to the top so they couldnt swim out.

Good luck!

 

[Lytehouse]

nice combination of ideas

 

[Glazner]

Mine went in my fish trap several times, of course I was trying to catch a different fish...ha. I currently have Paul's and can bring it to the meeting if ok with him....

 

[new2SW]

The tank is a 4' 90gal. The problem is that it hasn't started eating off the clip yet. We will end up catching one of the other tangs instead....

Backstory is that he was accidentally mistaken for another tang during the delivery of a group order. He was very difficult to identify because the bag had been quadruple-bagged for shipment. After drip acclimating him, my friend just quickly netted him and put him in his tank, and here we are. A week and a half later, here we are trying to catch it!

 

[Glazner]

with the fish trap, you only catch what you want. It may be hard to lure him in if he is not eating.... again I have Paul's fish trap if you want to check with him on borrowing it.

 

[cjilge]

i had the same issue catching a yellow tang a month or so back. ended up just being a stealthy salt water ninja! my opinion its the only way. joking aside its just really hard to catch them if they are shy and not eating off the clip, keep at it you'll catchem. what are you doing with the kole tang? any chance fs?

 

[spieszak]

I caught three chromis a while back with a clear unused dry cleaning bag.... I could get them chased into a corner, but couldn't net them there... they would shoot back out the other side of the rocks... they couldn't see the clear bag, so before chasing them into the corner, I set the bag in where they kept shooting out, and they swam right into it.. (if you try this, poke holes in the upper part of the bag to allow the water to drain when you life it out of the tank... )

 

[BabyB]

if he has hooked up to the eating routine yet... skip a week of feeding (yes, your fish will hate you... very much) but this gets them super excited about getting food and the fish will come up to eat and will not pay attention to what ever is going on. there mind is on food

i have a green chromis that gets put in the shameful shame box of shame about once a month for his attitude and every time he forgets that thats how i catch him. he can not resist the container of marine flake lol. once he sees it, it is game over and he has to come running to the food

 

[new2SW]

Well, with a little persistence the kole was finally caught. Unfortunately, he passed shortly after being put in a speciman container for the wait for me to pick him up. My buddy's wife actually caught him after I threatened to just order another blue eye if they didn't catch it by Sunday. I'm guessing the stress of the whole ordeal did him in. My friend's whole tank has suffered a bit from the week of trying to catch this guy. Really really sucks that I never got to enjoy him in my tank, but I'll definitely be getting another blue eye soon.