Help with capturing fish

[jrice]

Hi all

I need some ideas on how to capture a purple tang. He is almost four year old now and is about 3-4 inches long. I have a mixed 100g reef with only one fish ( guess who?).

Everytime I try to add new fish, Mr. friendly stresses them to death. I need some ideas on how to safely capture him, so I can return him to a local reef shop. I also would prefer not to take apart all the rock, sps, and lps corals.

Thanks

 

[mandrin13]

I would use a soda bottle but now that i think about it the tang wont be able to fit thru the hole.
so nvrmnd

 

[fishgeeksrus]

Build a trap out of a 2 liter bottle.

Cut off the top (right where it begins to taper)

Cut off the spout ( large enough for your tang to swim through)

Invert the top half and glue the 2 pieces together (low temp hot glue works well)

If you want, cut a flap in the body of the bottle, to put in food and some sand to weight it down. (and to remove the fish)

Put some food into a filter bag or nylon, put sand in the bottle, lay it length wise on the bottom of your tank, put the food in and wait for the fish to go in.

It'll probably take about 30 min for your fish to get brave enough to swim in..

Hope that helps

Dennis

 

[jrice]

Thanks fishgeeksrus

It sounds like a very interesting idea. Perhaps some nori inside the bottle might work. I wonder if a tang will want to swim along the bottom sandbed to enter the bottle.

I'm curious if you have used this method to trap any undesirable fish. It is really pretty ingenious.

 

[Reefcherie]

Lots of great tips in this thread.

Best of luck!

 

[fishgeeksrus]

have actually used it for the same reason you did. Aggressive Purple tang.

 

[onefin]

I've always had great luck using a fish trap, doesn't harm the fish at all, and i have removed many.

 

[landscapen]

i like the soda bottle idea