Best method of catching a stubborn fish in established reef tank?

[Jloebenberg]

Pulling all my fish to out in QT to treat my display and subsequent fish for ich, but my Royal Gramma has continued to outsmart me. Here’s what I’ve tried, two net approach, the feed and net switcheroo, and also the midnight flashlight blinding nab. I really don’t want to have to tear my tank apart and risk kybcorals health. Any suggestions? TIA.

[Rover88]

I took netting that I had used for my screen and weighed it down with rocks to section off the tank. I made sure to corral my stubborn fish (A wrasse) as far to one side of the tank as I could, and I carefully moved the net-wall closer until I felt comfortable enough in catching him in the small space left. This also worked on a tailspot blenny, but because he dove into a rock I had to chase him around until he dove into one I could easily remove from the tank, then it was as simple as just finding the hole he was in and poking him out of it with the rock upside down.

Probably traumatized the hell out of him, but it worked.

[heritage]

Try a fish trap

[journeyman]

I used an inverted bottle trap method to catch a wrasse. Maybe it'll work south a royal gramma.

Take a plastic bottle. Cut the top off below the neck and invert and put the top back into the cut out bottle. Put some tasty food inside and put it back upright in the tank.

When the fish goes into the bottle for the food you can take it out. The fish usually swims down away from your hands and deeper into the bottle.

thesimplereef.com

[Rover88]

I used an inverted bottle trap method to catch a wrasse. Maybe it'll work south a royal gramma.

Take a plastic bottle. Cut the top off below the neck and invert and put the top back into the cut out bottle. Put some tasty food inside and put it back upright in the tank.

When the fish goes into the bottle for the food you can take it out. The fish usually swims down away from your hands and deeper into the bottle.

thesimplereef.com

Hehe. I had a yellow coris wrasse that dove into the sand and ignored the trap. Wound up catching it by flipping the trap -over- and putting it loosely over the sand before disturbing it. Coris bolted out of the sand, straight up into the trap.

[ZenGuitarGuy]

I had to remove nearly all my rock to catch a fairy wrasse. I still needed two nets to do it--one net to corral it into the larger. It still took a while.

[shaginwagon13]

I use a plastic beer jug that is decently large to feed my fish. When I feed, I submerge the entire beaker and almost all the fish will swim right into the jog to eat.

If I ever need to catch one, its as simple as waiting for the one I need to get swims in, I lift the jug out of the water, and its as simple as that.

[AlSimmons]

How big is the DT? If it's not a huge tank the High & Dry method outlined in the link below has always worked well for me.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/sp/index.php

[BigT75]

I have the aqua medic trap yeah cost $70 yeah took my smart fish 3 days but it worked


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[Rover88]

I have the aqua medic trap yeah cost $70 yeah took my smart fish 3 days but it worked


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I tried this, it could not catch a wrasse, lamarcks angel, or a tang.

When they did go in (The wrasse never did, but the other two did) they got out of it faster then the 'gate' could drop, even when they were all the way in the back. I was laying on the floor out of sight with a piece of fishing wire in hand, and they still bolted out.

[shellsea]

Inverted bottle trick for me. just got a dottyback that was a challenge. Did not feed for a couple days. Put small amount of food in bottle, after about an hour he couldn't stand it anymore and went right in.

[Jloebenberg]

I appreciate all the help y’all! I’m currently trying a bottle trap combined with no feeding. I have corals and don’t really want to try to figure a way to get them all happy in a tub of some sort. I’ll let you know how it works.

[sfdan]

I had a lot of luck with the aqua medic trap. In the couple weeks I've used it to catch a kole tang, two clownfish (at once), two scooter dragonets (at once), a lawnmower blenny and a yellow wrasse. All the individual fish were easy, but even the times where I wanted to keep pairs together it wasn't that hard, just required a little more patience.

I put the trap in and fed the fish exclusively in the trap for 2 weeks before starting to catch any of them. In fact when I needed to catch the tang, I didn't even need to put food in, the tang just swam right into the trap when I put it in the tank, expecting food! Two weeks is probably overkill, but I think with any type of trap you want to make sure the fish get comfortable with it before trying to use it to catch them.

I tried this, it could not catch a wrasse, lamarcks angel, or a tang.

When they did go in (The wrasse never did, but the other two did) they got out of it faster then the 'gate' could drop, even when they were all the way in the back. I was laying on the floor out of sight with a piece of fishing wire in hand, and they still bolted out.

When I was catching all my fish, I'd have the gate under tension with the fishing line, and when the fish were in the trap I'd slowly lower the glass gate and then drop it when the gate was like 1" off the ground. Never had any fish swim out (or get smashed by the glass which was my primary concern).

[Joe0813]

Put a trap in the tank, don't feed the tank for about five days, feed his favorite food in the trap. Sit and wait

[Timfish]

https://www.amazon.com/Gamakatsu-Barbless-C12-BM-Large-Hook-Pack/dp/B007TFYGKE/ref=sr_1_1?s=hunting-fishing&ie=UTF8&qid=1530836480&sr=1-1&keywords=midge+hook

[artieg]

Take water out. That was the last resort for me.

[Valentini89]

Take water out. That was the last resort for me.

Yeah that's an easy way. Time consuming on a big tank though, and costly.

[moondoggy4]

^^^^ Not costly just put the water back.

[Nimitz87]

small fly fish hook with the barb removed and your favorite mysis shrimp on it.

I've also had good luck stunning them with a high lumen strobe light.

[Jloebenberg]

I got the little guy out. I made a trap out of a Gatorade bottle and put it facing his favorite sleeping crevice. Right before the lights came on I put a net by his back and he swam straight in. Banged around pretty good so he’s a little stunned. Hopefully his time in QT with be smooth and he recovers fine. Thanks again for the sudgestikns.

[Cancun]

Pulling all my fish to out in QT to treat my display and subsequent fish for ich, but my Royal Gramma has continued to outsmart me. Here’s what I’ve tried, two net approach, the feed and net switcheroo, and also the midnight flashlight blinding nab. I really don’t want to have to tear my tank apart and risk kybcorals health. Any suggestions? TIA.I use a piece of acrilic that I cut to fit in my tank and sectioned the tank off with it....I have caught a six line Wrasse and a agressive checkerboard Wrasse with that method, and with minimal disruption to the rest of my tank....fish traps have never worked for me.....I do the section off tank and 2 net method......

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[adamPL]

Pulling all my fish to out in QT to treat my display and subsequent fish for ich, but my Royal Gramma has continued to outsmart me. Here’s what I’ve tried, two net approach, the feed and net switcheroo, and also the midnight flashlight blinding nab. I really don’t want to have to tear my tank apart and risk kybcorals health. Any suggestions? TIA.

Did you cough that fish yet? I have same problem with my last fish yellow coris wrasse. Im thinking to use electric. Anyone done that? :)

[Vinny Kreyling]

After lights out get up in the middle of the night - turn on lights & go netting.
Caught my purple tang after chasing him from the rocks.

[outssider]

After lights out get up in the middle of the night - turn on lights & go netting.
Caught my purple tang after chasing him from the rocks.

this won't work with a yellow coris wrasse ….he's in the sand when the lights go out....

[ShadowR55]

How big is the DT? If it's not a huge tank the High & Dry method outlined in the link below has always worked well for me.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/sp/index.php

Wow, never heard of the high and dry method, that’s awesome. I would try this first and then a fish trap. I will usually feed only in my fish trap for a few days till the fish all learn to go there. Then i’ll Starve the, for a day then feed to catch the fish.

[toddman015]

I am in the process of moving my residents out of their cramped downtown apartment (BC32) to a much roomier 5 bedroom, 3 bath (75G) out in the burbs ;) I have used most of the techniques mentioned in the reefkeeping article, next on the list is the high and dry method. The soda bottle worked to catch my 2 peppermint shrimp, as they had started picking at my acans and zoas. After that, none of the fish would go near the trap, so I took it out for a couple of days. Then I tried putting it back in a different location. This time using magnets to hold the trap on the glass up near the top where the chromis and clowns tend to feed. When feeding time came, I blasted some mysis into the trap and 2 of the 3 chromis went right in. The rest of the fish were not fooled by my trickery, and retreated behind the live rock. The next night, after not feeding for 24 hours, I used the food in the net trick to grab up one of the clowns. Again, the rest of the fish basically flipped me 'the bird' and swam off to safety. Early that morning, around 2 am, I used the night attack method to scoop up the second clown with no struggle at all. I am now left with a chromis, royal gramma, bengaii cardinalfish, lawnmower blenny, and a cleaner shrimp to move. Hopefully the high and dry will do the trick! Happy reefing everyone!

[FoxFace Fish]

A tiny hook without a barb

[Apotack]

I used an inverted bottle trap method to catch a wrasse. Maybe it'll work south a royal gramma.

Take a plastic bottle. Cut the top off below the neck and invert and put the top back into the cut out bottle. Put some tasty food inside and put it back upright in the tank.

When the fish goes into the bottle for the food you can take it out. The fish usually swims down away from your hands and deeper into the bottle.

thesimplereef.com

Caught a flasher wrasse with this the other day.

[marin8n]

Can’t believe how well the lights off then quickly turn to full blast works. I just caught my 8” Emperor angel in a 300G tank full of live rock in about 15 seconds. Been trying to catch him for a week. Have to remove him for a few weeks to make some new additions to the tank and rearrange some rock before adding him back in. He is NOT happy with me but glad it was quick!

[russ13]

Bottle trap worked for me. Took a few tries but I got him

[KafudaFish]

Did you cough that fish yet? I have same problem with my last fish yellow coris wrasse. Im thinking to use electric. Anyone done that? :)

Yes a car battery works well. But you will need DC pulse and shouldn't do more than 25 watts output.

On the upside your corals will grow faster.