Buried Wrasse

[redfishbluefish]

I'm moving all the fish, corals and rock out of my tank to holding tanks to install a new tank. One of the fish I have is a Melanurus Wrasse. I'm trying to anticipate problems during the transfer, and the concern I have is as I empty the tank of rock, the wrasse will bury himself in the sand.

The question I have is how do I find him and get him out of the sand? Do I sift through the sand with my fingers? Not sure what to do. What do the fish experts say?

 

[Grossman90]

When I moved to a new house i transfered my fish to a smaller tank. Had to use my fingers to find my tamarin and leopard wrasse. The tamarin was freaked out for a bit in the new tank but buried himself soon after. The next day was fine and eating. I wouldn't stress about it.

 

[KJ]

Just use your fingers gently and shift through the sand ;)

 

[KJ]

install a new tank.

;WideyedAnd you didn`t tell anyone that you had a new tank?

 

[SeaJay]

When I had to get mine out, I sifted through the sand with my fingers. He would just dart out and find a new spot. Since the water was cloudy I couldn’t even see where he went. I found that mine would go as deep as he could, so I moved all the sand to one side where I could see him from underneath, then gently scooped all the sand in that area into a large net that’s course enough to allow the sand to pass through. Catching him was a real pain in the butt.

 

[redfishbluefish]

;WideyedAnd you didn`t tell anyone that you had a new tank?

LOL....I mentioned it but it was about a year ago. Because of family/personal issues, I'm finally getting around to making it happen. It's that second tank thread in my signature, but also found HERE.

 

[eatbreakfast]

If you are completely taking the tank down take out all the rock and I strongly recommend not keeping the sand. I use 5-6" fish nets to scoop sand into a 5g bucket. As you scoop out sand you'll catch the wrasse in the sand. This prevents you from chasing him around the tank which will stress it out.

 

[SeaJay]

If you are completely taking the tank down take out all the rock and I strongly recommend not keeping the sand. I use 5-6" fish nets to scoop sand into a 5g bucket. As you scoop out sand you'll catch the wrasse in the sand. This prevents you from chasing him around the tank which will stress it out.

I chased mine around a bit before concluding that scooping him out with the sand was the only option.

I’m going to be extremely strict with my QT process from now on so I can hopefully avoid going through that again.

 

[CindyKz]

If you are completely taking the tank down take out all the rock and I strongly recommend not keeping the sand. I use 5-6" fish nets to scoop sand into a 5g bucket. As you scoop out sand you'll catch the wrasse in the sand. This prevents you from chasing him around the tank which will stress it out.

This is what I did when I moved and my melanarus seemed to take it pretty well - once I got him back in the tank he was out and about right away with no prolonged hiding.

 

[Jesterrace]

I'm moving all the fish, corals and rock out of my tank to holding tanks to install a new tank. One of the fish I have is a Melanurus Wrasse. I'm trying to anticipate problems during the transfer, and the concern I have is as I empty the tank of rock, the wrasse will bury himself in the sand.

The question I have is how do I find him and get him out of the sand? Do I sift through the sand with my fingers? Not sure what to do. What do the fish experts say?

Even though it's not recommended to dig them up when they bury, it's exactly what I had to do with my Melanurus when I transferred it from my old 36 gallon to my current tank. What I did was drain about half of the water and remove the rock and then I drained the water down to just a couple of inches above the sand. I then slowly and gently sifted through the sand until I disturbed the fish. My Brother and my Father acted as "Spotters" to see when it got out of the sand and I was able to herd and trap it in a ziploc bag since it basically had no where to go.

 

[SeaJay]

I actually did successfully catch mine once without digging him out. I laid abbey at the top, gave him some time to get used to it, let him get a little hungrier than normal then fed him right next to the net. Scooped him up while he was focused on food.

The second time I guess he had learned his lesson.