Catching 3 Striped damsels.

[Disneyguy89]

Hello everyone. We have 2 zebra striped damsels in our 75gallon that were our first fish in the tank. But they have become extremely aggressive towards all other fish. It was recommended to us that we remove them from the tank and bring them back to the original shop who would gladly take them back. My question is what’s the easiest way to catch them? The instant a net touches the water they bolt for the live rock. Thank you for any and all replies!

 

[reefrubble]

Catching most marine fish in a tank is almost always a painstaking and time consuming process. When moving limerick around is not an option, which I assume is the case for you, relentless attempts to catch them with a net often takes a very long time and can stress out other fish in the tank. As a first step, I would recommend placing a net 3-4 inches bellow the water level facing upwards and leaving it there for an hour or two. After it has been in the tank like this for awhile without having been moved, try adding a little bit of food to the tank right above the net and prepare for swiftly moving the net up once the desired fish are above it. If this does not work, temporarily adjusting water flow to direct it into areas where the fish prefer to seek refuge can make the fish easier targets to catch. Doing this while also using multiple nets to corner the fish is often helpful as well. If none of these methods work for you or are not possible with your setup, let me know!

 

[davidcalgary29]

When moving limerick around is not an option,

"There once was an alewife from Nantucket..."

 

[HB AL]

 

[dedragon]

get towel, remove all live rock, net the fish, put the rocks back in, done. I know it sucks but damsels tend to be super wary of nets and traps

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Bend the barb down on a trout fly and dangle in front of them. Done

 

[kiran]

I heard clear specimen containers (I'm guessing any clear container if you don't have a specimen container) are the way to go with finicky fish. I think it's harder for them to see it coming? You can put it in front of the entrances of where they go to hide and try to corral them in there.

 

[Greg P]

Are you able to move any of the LR to buckets?
For impossible to catch fish I add an eggcrate divider, then remove the LR in that section.
They either come out with the rock or get netted

 

[vtecintegra]

I had one that took a couple of months before I out smarted it. I got a sheet of plexiglass and set it up a couple of inches off the side so it was open on one end. It took a couple of days, but his curiosity got the best of him. I saw him swim into the gap and closed him off. Then netted him out. He was too smart for a micro hook.

 

[mattnelson]

Did you ever get your damsels? I see some people using this contraption with some success.. they even have a version with a bait setup where you can inject brine shrimp into the bowl

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[mattnelson]

oops. double post