How to catch fish

[Saaqib_Ansari]

I have a coral beauty it’s been in Quarantine for a while I’ve added it to my display and I don’t want to say it but I think he’s nipping at my coral I lost a zoa frag and a birds nest frag. I’ve definitely seen him pick at the other zoas. How on earth do I catch it.

he’s very shy swims amidst the rockwork all day I don’t even think he eats when I feed the tank so not sure how to catch him without tearing the tank down.
P.s: the pictures re from when he was in the quarantine tank.

 

[Copingwithpods]

Fish traps, wait to its asleep trick, red light at night trick, train it to eat from a net trick, there are many ways and none of them are easy or a sure thing.

 

[JCTReefer]

Drain the tank to an inch or so of water, net fish out. Fill back up. I’ve done this several times. Easy and fast. You just have to have enough storage containers / trash cans to hold all the water. Use a pump. Or be patient and go the fish trap route. Or wait until the fish is sleeping and try and snag it with a net route. Fishing pole with barbless hook. Never tried it myself. Lol

 

[Copingwithpods]

Drain the tank to an inch or so of water, net fish out. Fill back up. I’ve done this several times. Easy and fast. You just have to have enough storage containers / trash cans to hold all the water. Use a pump. Or be patient and go the fish trap route. Or wait until the fish is sleeping and try and snag it with a net route. Fishing pole with barbless hook. Never tried it myself. Lol

Word of caution on the drain method, I've had to do it twice and only as a last resort. It stressed my fish so bad I'm probably never going to do that again,i thought my clown and gramma were going to die from the stress. Use this method with caution.

 

[JCTReefer]

For me, draining the tank was much less stressful than chasing a fish around the tank with a net. Never had any issues using this method. Mileage may vary though. But yes, use your own judgment. When all else fails, drain the tank. Best suggestion I’ve ever learned. Good ole wetwebmedia 20 years ago. Try your hand at the other methods first. I’ve gotten quite good at the feed and net technique.

 

[danreefman]

Done the trap, fly fish hook dipped in fish food on a fishing pool, get em while asleep.

All work well. Fishing is last resort.

 

[Reeffragger]

For me, draining the tank was much less stressful than chasing a fish around the tank with a net. Never had any issues using this method. Mileage may vary though. But yes, use your own judgment. When all else fails, drain the tank. Best suggestion I’ve ever learned. Good ole wetwebmedia 20 years ago. Try your hand at the other methods first. I’ve gotten quite good at the feed and net technique.

I mean if you got a small tank thatd work but for me draining a 135 gallons.. thats like 50$ in salt to catch a fish LOL. I personally just catch em at night.. or i take a divider i made and divide the tank in half.. spook the fish to a corner and add another divider i have and that narrow him down to only like 6 inchs of my 6ft tank. Works great.. but then my rocks are columns. Not walls so i can divde my tank into sections

 

[JCTReefer]

I mean if you got a small tank thatd work but for me draining a 135 gallons.. thats like 50$ in salt to catch a fish LOL. I personally just catch em at night.. or i take a divider i made and divide the tank in half.. spook the fish to a corner and add another divider i have and that narrow him down to only like 6 inchs of my 6ft tank. Works great.. but then my rocks are columns. Not walls so i can divde my tank into sections

Haha. You reuse the water drained out. No need to make up new!! The divider method. I like it! Actually just used the draining method on my 54 gallon. Had to move it to another room. New floors being put down. Bad thing about the drain method is that some fish like to hide in rocks. My Royal Gramma did this. He survived though. Had to drain my 240 back in the day to catch a Clowntrigger. Tried every other way.That was fun. Lol.

 

[Chin_FITC Verified Sponsor]

Had a flame angel do the exact same thing in one of my tanks — brutal to net because the rockwork gives them endless places to vanish into, and I didn't want to tear the whole scape apart just to get one fish out.

Full disclosure — that's the situation that pushed me to start FITC Aquatics and build the AquaCove. It simulates a cave so the fish swims into it voluntarily when being corralled, no rockwork teardown needed. Built for exactly this kind of “won't come out and I don't want to strip the tank” problem.