Nightmare hippo tang, help!!!

Lemons

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Hey folks! I'm done with playing nice with my tang! she has decided that she wants a one-way ticket to being re-homed! since she's decided to start tearing apart my goni garden, picking at zoa's, ripping tentacles off torches and frogspawn, and now is showing signs of extreme aggression to all other tank mates :C, my poor clowns have been restricted to a small corner. any straying results in nips and good ol tail slaps.

anyways that's the why, now for getting her out! I've been fighting with her for 3 weeks now, first I tried the old "get them used to the net with food in it" she refused to eat and stayed in her little hidy hole. then I moved onto the gold standard of a fish trap, and I got the largest that will fit in my tank so she wont think it's a mouth. once again legitimately every other fish decided to go in and hang out in it. but not once did the hippo consider going near it. i left it in for 6 days and she still refuses to swim openly near it. not once have I "triggered it" so she's too smart for a trap I guess. now for my third attempt which has been trying to clog her hide hole, and wrap a net around the one exit so she will get stuck. yet again she bunkered down for a day and a half.

now where I'm at currently is, I've clogged her main home without her in it! now she has stolen the home of my orange back wrasse and refuses to leave, even when "stunned" with a 600 lumen flashlight in the middle of the night she quickly stiffens up and locks herself in place in the little den. (I should say im trying to grab her and take her out with a rubber-tipped tweezers.)

so I'm about one more free floating tentacle away from attempting to dismatle my cemented rockwork to just force her into a corner and finally net her. or getting my hemostats and clamping down on her tail and getting her out

but since I don't wanna completely destroy my reef. any suggestions??????????

she gets a 3x3" sheet of norri twice a day and gets fed garlic/selcon enriched mysis once a day.


and if anyone is in Edmonton,AB,Canada if you can get her out you can have her lol
 

RSnodgrass

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Two ideas...

I've used the Tankmatez bubble trap on several and works extremely well.

An aggressive fish will respond to mirrors often times.

If your rockwork allows place a sheet of egg create in the tank that runs top to bottom. Place in a corner with one end open slightly.

Pinch the other corner against the tank with a mag scraper so it won't move.

Place nori I'm there and get ready to hold it shut. You will only get 1-2 shots.

IMG_20200514_132826.jpg
 
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Lemons

Lemons

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Two ideas...

I've used the Tankmatez bubble trap on several and works extremely well.

An aggressive fish will respond to mirrors often times.

If your rockwork allows place a sheet of egg create in the tank that runs top to bottom. Place in a corner with one end open slightly.

Pinch the other corner against the tank with a mag scraper so it won't move.

Place nori I'm there and get ready to hold it shut. You will only get 1-2 shots.

IMG_20200514_132826.jpg
ive seen that bubble trap before!!! perhaps I'll try to get one, and ill try the mirror in the fish trap! maybe she'll decide to start fighting that instead!

although now she does just hide whenever she sees anyone come close to the tank

I'll tape a mirror on the tank and i guess ill add 20ft of fishing line and hide outside of the room :confused:

thanks for the suggestions!
 

Reef - Tripp

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It is easy, the fish that are located where they sleep can be removed about 5 hours after turning off the lights, they will be asleep in a kind of lethargy and you can take them with your hands, it is not necessary to turn on strong light just enough to see where it is Either out of the hiding place take it with the net and your sump or wherever you plan to put it and then go to a new home. Greetings.
 

jmichaelh7

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I had exact same issue with same fish

I bought two big nets from petsmart

shut my powerheads off and everything. Took my rock work out and placed in bins with saltwater. And captured her
 
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Lemons

Lemons

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I had exact same issue with same fish

I bought two big nets from petsmart

shut my powerheads off and everything. Took my rock work out and placed in bins with saltwater. And captured her
Well this morning she has been extremely shy! probably because I tried to grab her with my hand at about 4am before work lol. didn't work :/.

So far looks like I might have to remove all 70lbs of live rock, but my last hail marry before tearing the tank apart is apparently you can stuff plastic bags in all the hide places, slowly one by one she'll run out of places to truly "bunker" down.... right??? lol

so I'm gonna remove all the places she feels safe enough hide when in danger. then turn off the lights for 6 hours then hopefully BAM

I appreciate all the advice folks!!
 
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Lemons

Lemons

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OH MY GOD I GOT HER

All it took was stuffing so many plastic grocery bags in it looked like a landfill, then I remembered fish can't really see in the red spectrum and shifted my AI hydras to full red. then I chased her a little with the net and BAM

now she's in the sump!

Thank you to all the reefers who chimed in!! it feels good knowing I'm usually not the first to have this issue!!!

now if there are any reefers in Edmonton AB, Canada that want a nightmare tang :) lemme know
 

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