Ideas to get fish out

[justincsumner]

Ok so here is the deal, this weekend im going to attempt to get out a undulated trigger from my 300 gallon tank without having to tear it all down. Any ideas? hes still small about i would guess 4 inches and shown no signs whatso ever of agression but we dont ana chance it anymore... Also have to get out about an 8-12 inch snowflake eel and a fuzzy dwarf lionfish. Tank is 36 inches deep so this is no easy task. any ideas to make this as painless as possiable?

 

[cr500_af]

300g? Grab a snorkel and fins...

(Sorry, my poor attempt at humor)

 

[frantz]

for the eel you could lay down some pvc pipe and hope he finds it a suitable cave then box then ends in, maybe bait it. Lion and tang a bucket/rubbermaid container and same principle... gotta have patience to get em in, I might not want to sit and watch but rather wait till they happen to be inside the respective trap. Bait may work here too.

 

[budsreef]

A large fish trap would work. I have one but you are a long ways away. You might want to post to see if anyone closer has a trap you could borrow.

 

[reefkeeper]

I have a 300 gallon and do it all the time. Get a fish trap and put it in the water for a while with no food in it. Stop feeding the fish for a day or two and then put food in the trap. It works for me everytime.

 

[patrick]

Get some large, clear trash bags. Submerge them and get all the air bubbles out. Open them up in a corner where you can likely divert the fish and they will usually swim right into it. Just gotta be quick in closing it up and then you can get them out of the bag easily. It is what I always use and have always been able to catch them in relatively short order.

 

[winkkle]

Net. Ive caught multiple fish while feeding the tank, just snagging the fish in question. Actually I've caught about 5 in 8 months that way. A yellow tang, sail fin tang, wrasse, Xmas wrasse and a flame angel lol.

 

[mvm]

Patrick;728411 wrote: Get some large, clear trash bags. Submerge them and get all the air bubbles out. Open them up in a corner where you can likely divert the fish and they will usually swim right into it. Just gotta be quick in closing it up and then you can get them out of the bag easily. It is what I always use and have always been able to catch them in relatively short order.

That's actually a great idea!

 

[justincsumner]

Thanks for the suggestions guys...... I still havent attempted to remove any of them lol. the eel is going to be easy when i go to get him out... im still hesitent on taking him out he hasnt bothered anything yet.... though i just suspect its a matter of time probally same goes for the trigger... The fuzzy dwarf lionfish wont be to hard to remover either i dont think. If i could get him to eat frozen food id prob leave him in there. Never thought about useing a trash bag. altough i do ike the idea of a fish trap just seems easiest.

 

[mvm]

justincsumner;728703 wrote: the eel is going to be easy when i go to get him out... im still hesitent on taking him out he hasnt bothered anything yet.... though i just suspect its a matter of time probally same goes for the trigger.

Aren't snowflakes pretty passive?

 

[justincsumner]

This is my first experiance with them but ive did alot of reading on them and snowflake eels are supposto be the most passive BUT there is still the chance. I dont normally see my eel till he gets hungry and then he just swims around till i lower some food for him and he scarfs it up then dissapears again. Im not really worried about him eating the fish to be honest because the little green chromis we have will litterly sleep right by him sometimes and hes not bothereing them its the cleaner shrimp's, Sea cucumbers im more worried about.

 

[patrick]

I've heard of using hooks, but I'd be too worried about one getting swallowed. I guess you could just cut the line and let the hook dissolve, but it could affect their feeding ability.......or at least I worry about that.