Catching a coral beauty angel

[RoxyDog]

Has anyone come up with some new and fantastic way to catch a fish?    I've tried the trap twice with no luck.

[Severum]

cyanide?

[Hookup]

I have some really, really small hooks for fly-fishing...  I swear, catch & release is the way to go...

[mikerobart]

If your not having luck with traps pulling out a bunch of rock might be the only way.

[yellowtang]

Have you tried catching it at Night?
when all lights are off in the tank!!!.....and most fish
are sleeping under a rock and crevices
I have caught quite a few fish like that before!!!
kind of sucks to be doing it at midnight,but might be the only way!!!
unless you're ready to aquascape your tank again!
good luck!!!

[JD]

+1 on Hookup
I watched a friend "fishing" once.
It worked like a charm with a small piece of shrimp.

[martin_jones]

I caught 3 fish out of my tank using half a pop bottle, some egg crate, a cable tie (to make a hinge between egg crate and bottle) and some fishing line (tied to the egg crate and then through a hole in the bottle). Dangled some shrimp near the egg crate, fish goes to eat, pull the fishing line and it closes the egg crate on the bottle, trapping fish inside bottle.

Good luck!

Martin

[RoxyDog]

hmm...taking the rock out isn't an option, maybe I'll see where he sleeps.  or maybe I'll make a new trap, but the fish wouldn't go near anything "weird" in the tank. 

Hookup, you wanna come over and fish him out? 

[percula99]

Not knowing what other fish you have in your tank, the following method might or might not work for you. A couple of years ago I needed to get four chromis out of my 180 because they were the only fish left alive after a bout with ich. I wanted to catch them and QT them for two months to let the ich die off in my tank. I dug a hole in the gravel in the front center part of the sand bed. I then drained all the water out. Once I was down to a couple of inches the chromis came darting ouf of the rock work looking for deeper water. They went right into the hole I had dug out of the sand and it was easy to just scoop them up with a net and place them in the QT. I then filled the tank back up and it took less than an hour and I never even got my hands wet.

[Funkmotor]

Not knowing what other fish you have in your tank, the following method might or might not work for you. A couple of years ago I needed to get four chromis out of my 180 because they were the only fish left alive after a bout with ich. I wanted to catch them and QT them for two months to let the ich die off in my tank. I dug a hole in the gravel in the front center part of the sand bed. I then drained all the water out. Once I was down to a couple of inches the chromis came darting ouf of the rock work looking for deeper water. They went right into the hole I had dug out of the sand and it was easy to just scoop them up with a net and place them in the QT. I then filled the tank back up and it took less than an hour and I never even got my hands wet.

This sounds like just the sort of genius thing that never actually occurs to anyone.  What would be good to know is what sort of risks this would pose to the various life in the system?  I have lots of stuff going on in my tank and I wouldn't want to kill anything.  I think my clam would have to come out into a container to avoid getting out of the water at all...

[RoxyDog]

I just can't imagine draining my tank, but not a bad idea.  I checked at night, "Colourful" as my son has named him, sleeps in behind the rocks -of course!   

[Funkmotor]

Not that I'm trying to hijack the thread. 

But I also have a bully fish that my tank would be better off without, and I'm in exactly the same boat...can't catch the thing for the life of me.

Draining a 40G wouldn't be nearly as bad as a larger tank, but with a fat piece of hose to use as a siphon (and if I could borrow a good pump) I could probably do the whole drain/catch/fill operation in less than 5 minutes.  It's very appealing, but I do wonder what I might kill in the process. 

[RoxyDog]

If you had a good fast pump, I think you'd be fine.  I might even try this if I can find room for 70 gallons of water.  Which fish is your bully?

[percula99]

Certainly we have to be smart enough to out think a fish. Give him lots of water and rocks to hide behind and the only real option is to catch him when he leat suspects it. Like when he is sleeping. You could try shining a light in his eyes. That might disorient him long enough to net him, if he is in the open maybe bright and early when he just wakes up at lights on time.

As for the draining, it worked for me. There is no guarantee. But it was worth a try with 250 ppound of rock plus all the corals. Clams would definitely have to be removed. They don't like air that much. Your corals would be fine for that time. I have seen SPS out of water in Thailand during low tide. We are talking several hours. If it's only minutes they would be OK. Hermits could take it also, probably even snails as thet would pull their shells down tight and heep whatever water they have in. I hope some of the ideas help.

[Funkmotor]

If you had a good fast pump, I think you'd be fine.  I might even try this if I can find room for 70 gallons of water.  Which fish is your bully?

Yellow tang.  Pretty small one, at that.  Just seems to have way too much attitude.  I suppose she should be grateful that my maroon is still only small or she'd be hermit food.

Edit:  This fish even tries to attack me through the glass...so it's a bit much.