Toadfish in a reef tank

[sparrow1013]

I have started transitioning one of my tanks from FOWLR to reef tank. So far everything is going as expected and I only see one possible issue. This tank is home to a 10 inch gulf toadfish that I brought home from a fishing trip last summer. He doesn’t bother corals or inverts and doesn’t even try to eat any of the mud crabs, porcelain crabs, emerald crabs, or pistol shrimp. He waits for feeding time, scoots up to the glass, grabs his worms or meat and then goes back in his hole. My concern is that he’s eventually going to eat my other fish I added. He doesn’t pay them any attention but if they swim in front of his face…..I feel like his nature would be to grab it without caring what it was.

Which brings me to the issue I may run into in the near future…..how to remove a toadfish from a tank without destroying or having to move the rock work. Moving the rocks in this tank and puttting them back takes 2 ppl and getting help is near impossible.

So I may just have a toadfish in a reef tank…..

 

[FishRN]

Might be a little mean but a fishing hook with a bit of his favorite food on it would work. They'll eat just about anything when I’m out fishing.

 

[sparrow1013]

Might be a little mean but a fishing hook with a bit of his favorite food on it would work. They'll eat just about anything when I’m out fishing.

I thought about that and have done it before with other fish. I just know if he doesn’t come out far enough to grab it, I’m not gonna be able to snatch him out and if he starts flailing around it’s gonna suck. Maybe if I wait and don’t feed him all day, then put food on a hook, he will come out farther to get it. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get the hook out of a squishy toadfish but I’m gonna cut the barb off before I do so I hopefully can get it out.

 

[FishRN]

Crush the barb on a small circle hook so it’ll hook itself and it lessens the chance of gut hooking him

 

[sparrow1013]

UPDATE
I was afraid if I did get him on a hook he would flail and knock over my scape and break the tank. He got so big that was a disaster waiting to happen with my setup. So….i removed all the rock work and just reached in a picked him up and put him in a transfer bucket. He didn’t even seem bothered by me picking him up.

I felt so bad the entire 40 minute drive to his new home. All I could think about was how scared he might be and how timid he really is. He hid under a rock all day. He didnt bother anything. He learned that his food came from a purple cup or a blue bag. He never ate my 2 Blennies or 2 gobies that had burrows around his rock. I came to the conclusion that toadfish are like the opossums of the sea. Lol.