Need help/advice catching fish

[Jan]

Hi folks,

Is anybody out there especially talented at catching fish in a large-ish reef tank, full of rock and corals? (WIthout destroying everything...)

I need to catch a dwarf angel (multicolor angel) because he's munching on many of my SPS and LPS...I don't know how long acans can survive when they're totally sucked into themselves.

I've tried a fish trap and I don't know how people get those things to work. It keeps getting blown around in the current, for one thing...

Anyone have any special hints/tricks to share? I need all the help I can get!

 

[edwing206]

I have caught 2 fish with the old 2 liter with the top cut off trick. What I did was not feed the tank for a few days and then put the bottle in the tank and put some food in it. Then when the fish goes in the bottle, tap the glass right in front to the opening from the outside of the tank and stun him, then quickly pull the bottle out.

 

[tdgates10]

I just got my Angel out of my tank by blocking it in to one side with cookie sheets. I have a 180g reef and removed a little rock and inserted several cookie sheets to make a false wall and got him within a few minutes. I wish I would have stared with this method because I wasted several hours before hand just trying all the regular tricks. Good luck

 

[lizardarm]

I've had good results using a fish trap. It's usually not a quicky deal; you've got to leave it in there for a couple of days to let the fish get used to it before putting food in it to lure them in. Takes patience (and some cursing at times) but it works.

 

[Jan]

lizardarm, did you have to turn off all of your tank circulation to get the fish trap to stay in one place? Mine wants to move all over, flip upside down, etc. But I hesitate to turn off the closed loop because this method takes time and it's the only flow I've got going in the tank.

The cookie sheet method sounds interesting, but I'd have to remove a lot of rock and corals to do it.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Jan
I am currently keeper of Marty's heavy duty fish trap. Caught many fish with it in my 180.
Sometimes on the tank bottom, sometimes hanging on the top front.

Near perfect success.

Here is a thread about the coke bottle type. They can be hung or clipped down to prevent drifting:

http://www.floridadriftwood.com/fish_trap.htm

 

[sonicboom]

Hi just wanted to let u know i went to a small fly fish hook with some line and put some food on it and fished them out took about 45 sec to get them

 

[luke33]

Barb free ofcourse : )

 

[lizardarm]

lizardarm, did you have to turn off all of your tank circulation to get the fish trap to stay in one place? Mine wants to move all over, flip upside down, etc. But I hesitate to turn off the closed loop because this method takes time and it's the only flow I've got going in the tank.

Yeah, acrylic floats (go figure); I ended up wedging a piece of LR on it

 

[NC2WA]

Jan,

I wait until the lights go out and with the entire room dark place wait until the fish settles down. Then place red film paper over the end of a flashlight and use a net or whatever you wish to capture your fish.

Using this method, I caught a flame angel in my tank within 5 mins.

Kirk

 

[Jan]

That's pretty impressive, Kirk. I'll have to do a reconnaissance mission then, to figure out where this guy sleeps...

 

[NC2WA]

Correct. I used the same method to catch a pair of cinnamon clownfish and did a sneak attack on them at 4 a.m. ( I could not sleep so what the heck, let's catch some fish).

 

[plack]

Time to go reef fishing

 

[TWallace]

Jan, I used this fish trap to catch the flame hawk I sold to you (how's he doing by the way?). I glued a magnet to one end so that I could fix it to the tank wall easily. The trap door doesn't slide down as easily as you might think, so I had to force it down manually with my finger. Ideally just releasing the string attached to the door will make it slide down, but I found that unreliable. In order to get the fish to go in to the trap, I left it in the tank for several days. When I fed them, I'd squirt the food into the trap with a turkey baster. This got them accustomed to the trap and eventually I caught them.

This worked on a flame angel in my tank as well that I had to sell because he may have been bothering my clams. You can borrow the trap if you want.

 

[Jan]

Tom, that's the same kind of fish trap I have (I haven't put a magnet on it yet though....that would make it easier to deal with). I agree that the "trap door" doesn't go down reliably or quickly.

The flame hawk I got from you is doing great. You should have seen him the first few days after I moved him to my new 240. He would swim around, and around, and around the perimeter barely stopping to perch and catch his breath. Anytime you want to come over and visit, you're welcome.

 

[MadMax]

I'm new here but certainly not new to the hobby.

This story I told a while back on RC is worth reading, if nothing else:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=714821



Good luck!