How do I get a fish out of the overflow?

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Gatorfreak

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
617
Location
Gainesville, FL
I have a 90 gal with built-in overflow. My new Yellow Watchman Goby must've been getting harrassed. He went over/into the overflow. Now he's just hanging out in the bottom there. Looking for ideas on how to get him out. I have a durso standpipe which takes up most of the room in there and makes it difficult to reach down with a net. I'm afraid that if I pull the standpipe out he might go down the tubing toward the sump. I guess that wouldn't be the end of the world but I'd probably have to remove all the LR rubble from the sump to get him.

Anyone have some ingenius solutions? If only he would follow food like my clowns, then it would be easy!
 
Some personal experience here...

Two successful methods depending on the size of the beasty.

1) Suction: One quick suck on the end of a appropriate diametre tubing draws the critter into the tubing. Don't suck too far... :eek:

2) Tilt and pour: Remove the overflow from the side of the tank. Tilt and pour the contents into a bucket. I could do this because my overflow connects to flexible tubing.

Special technique used for starfish: Bait and grab. Hold a small bit of food in my fingers...as the starfish invests more and more effort in getting closer to the food eventually enough of him is exposed to grab and pull. (In this case the starfish was occupying the actual "U" part of the siphon)

Good luck!
 
A couple small nets and a quick hand are the best option. I once tried removing the top, adjustable part of the standpipe to get my clown out. Instead, I pulled the entire pipe out and ended up flooding my floor with the 5-10gal of SW that was in my over flow. Be very careful.
 
get a small diameter net that flexes a lot and can reach the bottom of the overflow (if you cant bend the end then you can always cut it off i guess...) bend the net part so it's flat and perpendicular (in an "L" shape) to the handle, lower it down, and slide it under the fish. it's kind of like using a ladle to get soup out of a pot. idk i just thought of it :p
 
I used a small net and a long wooden spoon to get my manderin goby out

you could use a small powerhead an try to blow him to the top. just a thought
 
It's 2 feet down and at the moment I don't have any nets that are even close to reaching down there. With the standpipe there isn't room for my hand. If my current attempt doesn't work I'll get a long net tomorrow.

What I'm trying now is this: I have an Xterminator mantis trap so I baited it and lowered it down in there and I have a string tied to it. Now if he would just trap himself in there I can pull him out.
 
flood the overflow and let the litle guy comme to the top, stick a net under him and chatch him:)


Might not be as easy as it sounds:)))))) good luck
 
Well my use of the mantis trap didn't work. I'll have to look for a net with a long handle. Seems most of the responses involve netting him, basically.

I don't understand about flooding the overflow. The water level in the overflow can't be any higher than the tank's water level. It's a builtin-overflow, mind you.
 
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