purple firefish in overflow - help

[kirkwood]

I found him in there last night. He did this twice the first week I had him but I didn't catch it until he made it to the sump. In both instances I returned him to the DT without harm. That is how he got the name "daredevil". After that no more jumping for the past 2 months. Then last night I found him in the overflow. I took a smart water bottle (thin 1 liter bottle) and rigged it into a fish trap. I put some sinking elos pellets in it and it fit in the overflow. I didn't catch him last night. Any other ideas for getting him out?

 

[rdnelson]

Fill the overflow with filter floss. As you push the floss to the bottom it will force him to the top where you can net him.

 

[enderg60]

Not a bad idea. But for firefish....just siphon it out

 

[shanepike]

Some great responses here too:

 

[tbryan]

You can run the water level up in the tank to make it easier to jump back out.I did that last time my clown jumped in, then coaxed him a little with a net and he jumped back out on his own.

 

[cbj25]

You could pull the drain pipe and have a net ready at your drain in the sump

 

[kirkwood]

I just put a 1 liter tall bottle in my bubble chamber and ran the drain pipe into it. Now I just have to coax him into the drain pipe.

 

[tbryan]

Wish I had that much room to work in mine,the over flow on my 60 cube is really tight I can't get more than a few fingers down the top of it,had a turbo snail get in a while back,I had to shut the sump off for two days until he came close enough to the top that I could get him.

 

[markl]

Filter floss has always worked for me.

 

[kirkwood]

Victory is Mine!!!!

His brain - so small... My brain - so big... Yet he managed to defeat me for 10 days... I wound up using the smallest water bottle I could get my hands on and used mysis and brine as bait... Here is what I learned...

1) The 1 liter bottle trap was too big... the food was too far from the point of entry...
2) The trap cannot sit vertically in the overflow box.. It must sit horizontally...
3) Mysis and brine is a much better bait than pellets...

Once I got all this right, I had him trapped in 20 minutes...

 

[rdnelson]

LOL They time I got the firefish out of a members tank it took all of about 5 minutes using the filter floss method. I bet pulling the down tube in the overflow would be even quicker. hehehehe But, I am glad you got him.