Catching Lone Fish

[Piti]

I'm looking for hints, tips, suggestions on how to catch a specific fish in an aquarium... I moved most of my BF tetras, but... 3 got left behinde, because it was like 2 hours of me trying to wait for them to swim in the perfect position for my net... But I cant figure out how to catch these bloody fish. They get to defensive when they see the net, and they are much to fast when feeding...

Its heavily planted, tall wood inside (not to metnion a tall tank (never getting tall again))

Help...

 

[Carlovel1]

I'd use 2 nets instead of 1

 

[england]

Practise makes perfect, i always found, leaving net propped in tank for a while, then get a peice of maybe bamboo or similar,chasing fish toward net worked well,,,

 

[minnnt]

Syphon all the water out so they have about 1cm left... That slows them down. lol.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

minnt- Have you ever removed most of the water from a heavily planted tank? trying to catch a fish in that would be like trying to get somebody out of the basement after the whole house has collapsed

You can try chasing with one hand and netting with the other- use as big a net as you can and hopefully you can shoo them into it.

You might be able to catch them using a bottle trap. Get a pop bottle remove the labels and clean it well inside and out. next, cut off the very top part so you end up with what looks like a funnel. You can then fit this funnel (screw cap end down) back into the bottle. Poke 4 or 5 holes through both the bottle and the inverted funnel piece. These holes allow you to attach the inverted funnel to the top of the bottle by using small nylon wire ties or even waxed dental floss.

Put some of their fav food in the bottle, submerge the bottle to fill it and then set it on the bottom of the tank. Fish swim in but have a hard time finding the hole to get back out. I suggest you do not feed the fish for two days prior to putting in the trap so they will be well motivated to go after the food.

One note, this sort of trap only works with fish that can fit trough the top. However, there are all sorts of clear plastic bottles out there with varying size mouths.

 

[minnnt]

Works for me. Thats normally how i get people out of the basement anyway...

 

[challdog]

i have a 4 inch net.

my strategy is:

leave net in tank for 20 mins (fish get used to it)
take net out, and place food in net.
put net back in...
wait a few seconds...
fish investigate new food source...
BAM !
fish caught

this has never failed me,
ive caught khulli loaches with this method (now that's saying something...)

Iain

 

[bullit]

will be trying that challdog

 

[Piti]

I also have Rainbowfish and in the tank, and if youve ever seen rainbowfish feed The trap seems like a good idea, might make 1-4 of them (varrying in size) in order to catch the fish... and refilling till i get the right ones (check every hour so as O content doesnt kill them in the bottles.