Techniques on Catching a Fish?

[riseabovethesun]

I'm being very hopeful in that someone will have some wonderful technique they use to catch a fish they can't have/don't want in their tank anymore.

As some of you know my tank is very planted and it is impossible to catch fish. When I needed to catch my CAE when I learned about them I had to break down the tank, take things out, drain water, and then replant the plants. Same thing when I needed to catch my 4 Kuhli loaches.

Now I need my SAE out of the tank. He is bothering the other fish and attacking my shrimp. My shrimp are my pride and joy (I know you guys know lol!) and with four shrimp alone I have an investment of $42 the SAE cost $3 bucks and isn't working out, he also isn't doing the job I wanted him to do.

SO any tips? I just tried putting blood worms in a net and letting the net float hoping he'd travel into it, no luck. I've left the net in the tank in hopes that they become use to it for long enough so I can catch him. I'd GREATLY appreciate any advice.

 

[brian1973]

I have used a submerged 20 ounce soda bottle as a fish trap before, add some food then fill it with tank water until it sinks. It worked for trapping young convict cichlids but it may take a while for you to finally catch the target fish.

 

[OrangeCones]

I've always had good luck using a plastic soda bottle cut in half to make a fish trap, similar to this:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/fish_trap.php

My fish are all small, so I've never had to cut the top off to make the opening bigger.

 

[riseabovethesun]

Thanks! I will try this right now, hopefully it works, I probably stressed them all out with the net.

 

[OrangeCones]

Last time I had to use it, I kept catching the same fish (not the one I wanted), over and over. I finally moved that fish to a water-change bucket to chill until I caught the one I wanted!

 

[riseabovethesun]

So far I caught one cherry shrimp and two rummy nose tetras. The SAE refuses to come to the front of the tank, this is going to be one patient process....

 

[riseabovethesun]

Caught two more cherry shrimp. Caught 9 rummy nose tetras at once and every ten or so minutes two get trapped in there.

C'mon SAE!!!

Grr.

But on a great note, this is a great technique for someday if I need to re-do anything in the tank, I can catch like schools of fish at a time. Schools don't seem as smart as fish by themselves...

 

[Newman]

wait until night time. then after a few hours of darkness when theyre all sleeping, quickly turn on the room light, locate the SAE and catch him in the net while he is still in a daze.


SAEs are supposed to be in groups. then they bother eachother and not other inhabitants...

 

[punkrockfish]

drain out half the water, turn off the filtration and air, and chase him till he tires out. two nets are a must, and it helps to have another person. remember, if you are resting, so is he.

 

[riseabovethesun]

He wasn't bothering the fish so much, but the shrimp. I think it's a lot more difficult to get fish that won't bother shrimp, especially smaller ones.

And I know the two person, two net idea. The bottle actually almost worked, but he would always turn around. I have two large pieces of driftwood, one weighs around 10-15 pounds each with crevices out the woohoo, so if I take a net to the back he is on the front if I take a net to the front and back he is in a crevice taking an alternate route. It's hard to explain without seeing the tank, it's the WORST set up for catching anything, I swear.

I ended up taking out the smaller piece of driftwood chased him for awhile then went and tilted up the really large piece of driftwood keeping the plant side in and the less plant side a bit out of the tank and trying to keep it in the tank mostly because shrimp and baby shrimp are buried within the plants on each piece of wood. The first fit into a bucket, then I had someone chasing him in my direction and we both just kept chasing him with the net. Then had to replant my aponogeton ulvaceus, madagascar lace leaf, catch all the java moss and replant a few others because there is NO way I could move a net around in there catching a fish without destroying the tank.

Thanks for all of the tips and pointers though, I love the bottle idea and caught all my schools of fish so that may be a nice future trick. And thanks Newman about the light technique, I haven't tried that and it may work or my setup might make it impossible.

Now...to either take the SAE back or keep him for the 40 gallon and get a few others...