The most difficult fish to catch in a reef tank...

[JoeJoesonoma]

When i first started my reef tank i bought 5 bicolor chromis to help cycle the tank. But then it was the time for more fish. So...i introduced a pair of clownfish. The clownfish were constantly getting attacked. I ended up pulling out all my rocks and using a light diffuser to corner them. Lets just say after 3.5 hrs and many wet towels they were finally out.

 

[djreef]

Flame Angel. Took me two months in a full blown 120 gallon reef using the critter box trap.

 

[Peace River]

The most difficult fish to catch hands down, is the one you want to catch.

+1

 

[Ljs9924]

My 6 line wrasse ,i never technically caught him after of weeks trying ,i came home one day and he was in the filter pad area of my biocube lol

 

[Raege]

Blue devil Damsel

 

[motortrendz]

For me it's my bird wrasse. Beautiful fish. But I need inverts and he likes to eat everything I put in the tank. Hes so fast its insane. And wont get near any traps, and I've been trying for over a year now.

 

[Waterislife]

back in the freshwater days - retail black shark - fast, smart and jumped(but never out of the tank)

 

[Panky]

Red Coris Wrasse that my dummy didn’t know he was going to turnover everything in my tank.

 

[Chestern02]

Flame angel..had to break down half of my tank to catch him.

 

[falconut]

I've had a few, but the hardest was a Flame Hawk. I got a larger tank & was moving the fish out to the new tank. I drained all the water, but and inch & removed most of the rock. That little guy kept shooting back & forth in the limited water. It was unreal just how hard it was to get him.

 

[Hemmdog]

Leopard wrasse.

+1

 

[HOOPDEEZ]

I’m moving my tank in a month, so I’ll let you know!

 

[sfin52]

Black spot foxface. It knew. I don't know how but it knew. After deciding the black spot had to go every time I walked toward the tank it would hide.

 

[Crabs McJones]

What has been the most difficult fish you've ever had to catch? For me it was a sixline wrasse that was incessantly chasing and stressing out every other fish in the tank. He was almost IMPOSSIBLE to catch.

The most difficult fish to catch, is the one you need to catch

Edit; I guess this was said earlier. Great minds think alike

 

[Drew in Texas]

When I had a velvet outbreak, all my fish died except the marine betta 'Spot'. Wanted to catch it so my tank could fallow. Tried every type of trap and 4 people tried to net it, including someone from my LFS. Had a lot of corals, so I didn't want to disassemble the 150g reef tank. After 3 months, decided to do a 100% water change. Once ALL of my rock was out and there was only about 3 inches of water in the tank we finally snagged it and put it into a coppered QT. It's still going strong, seldom hiding and healthy as a horse. 'Spot' and the black tang are the stars of my tank...

 

[MombasaLionfish]

Damsel. I had to lower the water level take out three main rocks and call in backup just to get mine in QT.

 

[mkwarner77]

pistol shrimp so far, been trying to trap him for 2 weeks. Don't want to tear the tank apart to get him out, but he's gotta go.
not a fish, but a real pain.

 

[LadyMac]

My male clown in my reef. He’s a slick lil dude. Even with all rocks removed he could easily slip the net.

In my fw it was bristlenose plecos. They had a habit of sticking to the glass and it’s hard to pull that suction cup of a mouth off when they are determined. Plus they have spiky fins and gills and they aren’t afraid to spine you.

 

[Peach02]

Mandarin goby for me.
We had one in our frag tank at work that I ended up buying but we had tried to catch it about 4 times
1st time it was sitting on a coral I almost got it with a net but i blinked, it jumped OVER the net swam like 60cm then went under the egg crate.
2nd time my co worker got it in a net, called
Me over and was like hey look what I caught (he knew I wanted to buy it) and I look at the net and I’m like, you know that’s empty right? And he looks down and is like “****, there’s a hole in the net”
3rd time it swam under the egg crate
4th time we where looking at the tank and it got into the weir somehow and was still a pain in the *** to catch because it kept hugging the overflow pipe

 

[Peach02]

The most difficult fish to catch hands down, is the one you want to catch.

Too true