Just put some food in the net and hold it about 2" away from the front of the tank. The fish will swim into the net after the food. Slap it against the front glass and you got 'em!!
I just tore down a 240g tank to catch all my critters. I started out by removing all my rock and corals. About 460lbs of rock. :mad2: Then I spent 2hrs chasing all the fish around with 2 nets and my wife also had 2 nets.
I couldn't catch 2 of my chromis. Went back in the next morning and snatched them both up in about 5 seconds by using the "food in the net" trick.
Read the Stickys at the top of this forum. Do you have 30 minutes of your life to find out how the Ich parasite reproduces and infects your fish? Those Stickys are VERY educational.
Basically, you have 2 choices:
OPTION 1
Do it the RIGHT way and remove all the fish from the tank. Treat them in QT. They should be Ich-free in about 1-2 weeks at most. But you still have to leave the tank fallow (no fish) for 6-10 weeks.
OPTION 2
Leave the fish in the tank and pray they survive for the next 11 months. Thats how long it takes for a single strain of Ich to die in your tank. Add a new fish (possible new strain of Ich) --and the timer starts all over. 11 more months.
I personally wouldn't put my fish through 11 months of hell by risking repeated infections over an 11 month period. I think it's gonna be a very rare fish that survives for that long.
Do the right thing for your fish. Be a responsible reef keeper. Take them out and treat them just as if they were your children. You wouldn't let your kid get repeated tonsil infections for 5yrs straight, would you? Of course not. You'd take them to the doctor and have their tonsils removed. Have the same compassion for your fish. You took on the responsibility of keeping them healthy when you bought them.
I know it's a pain in the ***. It wasn't easy for me to set up a 55g QT tank and remove all that rock and then chase them around for hours while standing on a ladder. I was sweating my butt off. I was cussing. I fell off the ladder twice. It sucked.
But it's my own darn fault for putting a new fish into my tank without running it through QT first. I've had this reef for almost 5yrs and this is the first time I've ever seen Ich in my reef. I ALWAYS QT all my corals, fish, softies--EVERYTHING. I got lazy ONE TIME and look where it got me. :mad2:
Now I get to work by butt off for the next 10 weeks. The fish will be healed up in just a few weeks. No big deal. But I have to leave them in the QT tank for 10 weeks so that all the Ich in the tank will die off. The 55g QT tank was an emergency. I usually QT in a little 10g tank. Thats EASY because you're only QTing one fish or one coral at a time. But keeping a 55g tank CLEAN and keeping the fish healthy in this type of environment for 10 weeks is going to be an exercise in craziness. There is no biological filter in the 55g tank. There are no live rocks. I'll be changing 10-15 gallons every couple days just to keep the ammonia and nitrates from going sky high. Doesn't that sound like fun? :lol:
Repeat after me:
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
I WILL QT EVERYTHING BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK.
