HELP... Coris wrasse terrorizing my reef

[nick.congelossi]

I bought a juvenile coris wrasse when i first started by tank and he was a very peaceful and calm fish at first. Now that i have added a bunch of live rocks and corals to my tank there is alot of money invested. The coris wrasse is very agressive towards other fish especially a leopard wrasse whom i was told by my local fish store would get along great with, he is also making a meal of my zoas and hermit crabs. I want to get him out of my tank but he is extremely fast and hides in the reef as soon as i approach the tank, any suggestions on how to get him out without completely disassembling my tank?

[TWallace]

I'm surprised it's eating zoanthids, though not at all surprised it eats your hermits. Try to find where it sleeps at night (in the gravel) and see if you grab him while sleeping. Otherwise, try one of the fish traps or even use fishing line and bait (good chance you'll catch other fish first).

[miwoodar]

You can also try cutting the top off of a 2-liter bottle and inverting the cone. Put a few small pieces of food in the bottle and he might be tempted to go in...but he won't be able to get out.

[atzak]

Use it's aggression against it. Hold a mirror up to the tank, the wrasse will be so angered by it's reflection, it won't notice anything else. Slowly bring the mirror near the surface and grab it quickly with a net. I've caught many fish in large reef tanks in under 3 minutes using this trick

[cheesner]

I got my 6-line out by putting a large net (1' x 1' with coated wire hoop on edge) in the tank laying flat on some rocks. I tied some fishing line to 4 spots and joined them together about 3 feet up. Here I tied another piece of line that went to my coach. It took three days for him to finally swim over the top. I yanked on the fishing line, the net went up, and he was caught.

I had made several poor attempts to get him, and he knew I was out to get him. Just walking close to the tank, he would hide out. This was the only way I could get him.

[nick.congelossi]

thanks alot for the help guys, i'ts been 3 days of trying to sneak up on him and still no luck, maybe time for some guerilla tactics, i like the mirror idea, he's definitely a fiesty little fish.