How to catch a damsel?

mikesilverado8888

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I got a blue damsel that's picking on the other fish. Anyone ever had success catching a damsel?
 

TCFletch

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I had the same problem once and the only way to catch it is to empty the tank OR move everything to one side if you can, shoo the fish to the empty side and quickly put in a tank divider.
 

twilliard

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They are masters at not getting caught
Here is what i did..
They sleep in one spot every night.
When the lights go off and they go to their home take the rock out of the water
They dont know whats going on for the most part until there is no water
Now if said fish sleeps in the corner on the bottom same deal. This time slowly put a net in front of them and then they only have one direction to go.. into the net
 

Tahoe61

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They are masters at not getting caught
Here is what i did..
They sleep in one spot every night.
When the lights go off and they go to their home take the rock out of the water
They dont know whats going on for the most part until there is no water
Now if said fish sleeps in the corner on the bottom same deal. This time slowly put a net in front of them and then they only have one direction to go.. into the net

I have used this method with success.

Another way is to lower the water level so much that the fish has no where to go, use a clear plastic container.

You can also use a small fish hook.

And then you have your fish trap.

Good luck to you.
 

bsfmaximus

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After chasing a damsel around my tank with a net for days, this worked for me in a matter of minutes. Get a tall, clear glass, place in tank, get all air out of it (so is as invisible as possible) and position it on a rock or on the sand horizontally. Use your net to chase the damsel into the glass. Remove glass and damsel. I was ready to try a small hook or to just give up and I found this advice from someone and was pleasantly surprised. My damsel would swim away from my net consistently along the same few "paths"... so I placed my glass along one of those paths and the damsel went back to LFS.
Good luck!
 

redfishbluefish

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Here's my first choice:
Speargun.jpg

I despise these devil fish! If the above method is unacceptable, my next choice is a simple bottle trap.....with a little secret to help catch the SOB.

Using a two liter soda bottle, cut off the top and, if need be, enlarge the opening in the top of the bottle to just fit the fish. Reverse the top and place into the bottom portion of the bottle. I punch holes through the bottles edge and use twist ties to hold everything together. Now here's the secret....put a small hole in the bottle that will fit the tip of a turkey baster.

IMG_4231.jpg



Now starve the fish for 2 or 3 days. Place the bottle trap in the tank and fill your turkey baster with some taste food.....I like mysis. Use the turkey baster to hold the bottle underwater and now squirt the food into the bottle. Leave the turkey baster in the hole and every so often squirt water into the bottle causing the food to swirl around like a snow-globe. The hungry fish will see this food and dart into the bottle.
 

DrayB

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i've heard the mirror in a bottle trap works well, you could steal one of your wife/girlfriends makeup mirrors as they are small :) make sure it's he favourite one though lol
 

rhorn67

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I had a nuisance damsel I needed out of my tank. My LFS had a fish trap they let me borrow. It was made of clear plastic with a mirror on one end and a pivoting trap door on the other. I didn't feed the damsel for a few days so he was hungry. I put a few flakes of food in the trap and lowered it into the tank. It was no more than 20 seconds and he was in the trap after the food and the door was closed behind him.

Good luck
 

Dtackett

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well, there is the right way and the wrong way of doing things. now, the wrong way was putting such an aggressive fish in the tank in the first place. but, most of us have done this or something along these lines.

so now were onto the right way to get said fish out of the tank. my way is pretty simple, costs about a buck and is a sure fix to the damnsel. simple, sweet and quick theres no better way to get right of a damnsel than to remove all other fish from the tank, remove all coral and rock, fire up the grill, remove all water from the tank. scoop up the now flopping around damnsel, then toss it on the grill. while its chilling on the grill (don't worry, even this wont kill the *******) replace the water (good time for a 100% water change if you ask me) replace the rock, place the fish back in the tank and place all other live stock back in the tank. by now your damnsel should be nice and made because lets face it, not even the fires of hell can kill a damnsel, so be careful when you get it off the grill, then place it in a blender and make home made fishfood out of it. now, the fish it was picking on can laugh and enjoy eating the bully fish.
 
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mikesilverado8888

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well, there is the right way and the wrong way of doing things. now, the wrong way was putting such an aggressive fish in the tank in the first place. but, most of us have done this or something along these lines.

so now were onto the right way to get said fish out of the tank. my way is pretty simple, costs about a buck and is a sure fix to the damnsel. simple, sweet and quick theres no better way to get right of a damnsel than to remove all other fish from the tank, remove all coral and rock, fire up the grill, remove all water from the tank. scoop up the now flopping around damnsel, then toss it on the grill. while its chilling on the grill (don't worry, even this wont kill the *******) replace the water (good time for a 100% water change if you ask me) replace the rock, place the fish back in the tank and place all other live stock back in the tank. by now your damnsel should be nice and made because lets face it, not even the fires of hell can kill a damnsel, so be careful when you get it off the grill, then place it in a blender and make home made fishfood out of it. now, the fish it was picking on can laugh and enjoy eating the bully fish.
Lol
 
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mikesilverado8888

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Just got a really big net and some live Shrimp squirt of them in the bottom of the net he went right in and I scoop them out
 

DeniseAndy

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Mine outsmarted me for weeks. I gave up. He is still in there. Although, now that he is the only one in there he is no longer aggressive. The problem was when I had 3 others just like him.

I normally do not add damsels, but these were blackmouth chromis and not much had been done with them at the time. So, I tried. Utter failure. They are fine a babes, but as they grow, they are territorial. Each had their own spot in my tank until I noticed other fish's fins and tails were damaged. It was them. So, I managed to catch 3 of the 4 and they went to a new home (a shark tank I think). The fourth just taunts me everyday. Maybe one day I will get the booger out, but for now, it does not bother anyone but me.
 

Reefcrafter

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After chasing a damsel around my tank with a net for days, this worked for me in a matter of minutes. Get a tall, clear glass, place in tank, get all air out of it (so is as invisible as possible) and position it on a rock or on the sand horizontally. Use your net to chase the damsel into the glass. Remove glass and damsel. I was ready to try a small hook or to just give up and I found this advice from someone and was pleasantly surprised. My damsel would swim away from my net consistently along the same few "paths"... so I placed my glass along one of those paths and the damsel went back to LFS.
Good luck!
Hey so I just wanted to say thanks I was trying to do something like it and after reading your post and trying again it worked like a charm. I used a large clear Jar along the normal swim path if I put a net near him and he went towards the jar but noticed it last second and he would dodge around it. He did this twice that way so I moved the jar's opening to cover the new path he was using and he went straight in. I was almost sure I was going to have to pull the tank apart to capture the little devil. I didn't want to do that for sure or stress anything else waving a net around for hours so I checked on here and your advice was great! It happened to be a Black and Gold Chromis terrorizing the tank. Just as soon as he was caught the other fish all went back to normal behavior swimming freely and at peace.

Thanks bsfmaximus and reef2reef.com
 

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