Catching a Yellow Basslet

[macman7010]

I added one of these yellow basslets to my reef tank a few weeks ago and the darn thing is a real pain. It looks somewhat like an Electric Yellow Cichlid and has the personality of a cichlid to boot. It chases my other fish and nips at the antenna of my shrimp.

Naturally I wanna catch this guy and get him out of there. Netting him is somewhat of an issue since he is in a 50 gallon reef tank with roughly 70 pounds of live rock and lots of corals, many have grown onto rock ledges and cannot be removed. Any sharp ideas on how to net or catch this fish?

 

[mykpoz]

have you tried any sort of traps yet? the other option i have seen work is to not feed for a day or two, and then feed surface food such as flakes and then scoop him up when he feeds.

of course having two nets help too...

 

[macman7010]

turns out this this fish isnt even a basslet but rather a yellow psuedochromis. fish store had them mis-identified.

 

[hcuellart]

I heard a good one before. I will try and explain it...
This guy had the same problem you have and what he did was puting a transparent platic bag in the water and let the fish feel comforatble with it. after a while he got a nice tasty food inside the bag and just waited for the little guy to get inside and catch it. I don't know how well he eats or if he is accustomed to you being near the tank... Well I liked the idea but have not used it as of yet.
HTH

 

[kimberly]

Two people and two nets always works for us, one can chase the fish into the other (still) net.

 

[HoopsGuru]

Bags are tough because they collapse underwater and give an equally large entrance and exit. A better solution might be a fish trap depending on the size of the fish. Cut the end off of a plastic soda bottle and invert it. The fish can easily swim in but have trouble negotiating how to get out giving you time to lift them out of the tank. This is easiest if the fish is aggressive towards feeding in the tank, I have not had it work with timid fish.

 

[afilter]

A fish trap as decribed above is definately the way to go without upseting the entire tank. FYI, make sure the bottle you use is cleaned thouroughly.