Fish in overflow - resuce tips please

[rhdoug]

I have a nice fairy wrasse that is in the overflow of my 58 gallon oceanic. I scared him into jumping in there a few days ago during tank maintenance. He can't return to the main tank due to the mesh top so I need to manually get him out.
The overflow contains a durso standpipe so netting him is out. At this point I am considering pulling the standpipe and letting him ride the drain tube into a bucket, unless someone has a better idea. Of course if he doesn't make it down the tube I can just reach in with a net and get him when the water is drained out. Anyone with other rescue tips would be appreciated.

 

[Curtie44]

This has happened several times to me. I have a blenny, helfrichi and a chromis that have found their way into one of the overflows on a number of occasions. The easiest way I have found to get them out is to wrangle them up to the top of the overflow (mine is 24" deep) with an algae scraper handle or something, and scoop them out with your hand. I also have a standpipe so using the net wouldn't work. My wife is actually the one who has rescued all the fish from our overflows, I guess with her smaller hands she has much more room to maneuver.

Good Luck!

 

[Seasonedreefer]

I would shut the pumps off and remove your bulk head all the water and the fish will drain out through the bottom. It's a real pain in the butt but you will get them everytime and don't have to stress them out on failed attepts with other techniques.

 

[rhdoug]

Thanks everyone for all the ideas. I ended up just easing the standpipe out of the bulkhead enough to drain the water without sucking the fish out. The return pump was off so the box wouldn't refill. There was only an inch or less of water left and the fish was easily netted. There was a danger that he would be able to flip around and inadvertantly fall into the drain but that didn't happen.