Catching an angelfish

[mkowals2]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if you had any advice on safely catching an angelfish. I will be moving in May so I unfortunately have to get rid of all fish and equipment, but I'm concerned about how I'll go about getting my angelfish out of my 30 gallon tank without injuring it. Is it safe to capture it with a standard net? Will it damage its fins at all? The net I have is approximately 5" long, 4" wide, and 3.5" deep. The fish is approximately 4.5" from caudal fin to mouth, and 6" from dorsal fin to anal fin.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time,

-Mike

[exv152]

I find the best way to catch them is to use two large nets and slowly close in on them from opposite sides. They tend to not freak out until they realize they're in a net. I use 8"x6" nets, to ensure they don't get hurt. And cover the net when you pull it out because they with thrash like crazy.

[mkowals2]

Thanks for the advice! Say I wanted to avoid the net altogether - have you ever had success with placing a large bag in the water, and sort of coaxing them into it? Or will this just be wasting my time, and stressing out the fish? :S

[sas]

Use two nets and work slowly. Have your bag that the fish is going to go in at the ready,
and  work calmly and quietly. Netting and bagging fish I'm convinced is more stressful on us
humans that it is on the fish.
Remember to not feed fish prior to being shipped distances, as this reduces waste produced.

[exv152]

I'm with Sue on this, go calmly and slowly, so as to not startle the angel. They tend to freakout and run into things (hurting themselves) if you come at them aggressively with anything.

[Toss]

Larger net would help a lot. If you don't have two of them, just use your bare hand and single net. Plastic bag in the water does not work well in my experience.

[sas]

I forgot to mention in my post that I also put the fish bag in a milk jug or
Tupperware container so that it stands alone and stays open beside me,
while I'm catching fish.

[Shawn84]

If you can catching them by hand by far the best and lease amount of stress on the fish. Take some practice but I usually do this with my angel when need to be catch