Hawk fish

[bjthereefer]

Need help catching my pixie hawk fish he thinks he's king of the tank and I need him gone , I cant get him with the net

 

[JumboShrimp]

How many gallon tank? If you can syphon all the water into something adequate for the purpose, down to about 2" of water, you should be able to get the fish pretty easily. (Low-tide method.) Then refill the tank.

 

[PleaseThink]

Fish trap, perfect tool for removing a curious benthic fish like a hawk or Plectranthias. The draw string door or floating bubble style would probably work great. Patience is key can take a few days of extended observation to get a good chance at catching the fish. and a missed attempt will likely cause a few days or weeks of not going near the trap.

 

[Chin_FITC Verified Sponsor]

Hawkfish are brutal for exactly this reason — they perch, dart into a crevice the second the net gets close, and being benthic they know every nook in the rock better than you do. I've done the drain-it-down-to-a-few-inches trick on a stubborn one before and it does work but isn't fun.

Full disclosure — I'm the founder of FITC Aquatics. We put together a guide on getting a territorial fish out that covers that "king of the tank" aggression you mentioned — turns out it's something you can work with rather than fight. AquaCove gets a mention in there as one approach that leans on it.

 

[bjthereefer]

How many gallon tank? If you can syphon all the water into something adequate for the purpose, down to about 2" of water, you should be able to get the fish pretty easily. (Low-tide method.) Then refill the tank.

I heard about that but I have to much rock work and stuff to do that and I tried most methods he's just to smart

 

[JumboShrimp]

... when you get it down to just a very few inches of water, you start using items (like nets, sheets of plastic, whatever) to progressively section off areas of the tank, cutting off more and more escape routes in the rock. It's far simpler than you think, 'once' the water is no longer a factor.

 

[bjthereefer]

I heard about that but I have to much rock work and stuff to do that and I tried most methods he's just to smart

Its a 55 gal mix reef

 

[bjthereefer]

Thanks to everyone for your ideas I did catch him with the floating trap and I have him in a bucket waiting to go to my LFS