clown in my overflow

[EVMIII]

O.K, now I know that I need to put a screen over my overflow boxes, but for the problem at hand: my smaller (male) clown has jumped into my overflow box. I have a dual internal overflow boxes on my 125 gallon reef. No way I can get him out with a net that I see, if I get near him he shoots to the bottom. Can't hardly get to it at all because of my hood and lights. Removal of hood and lights is problematic. Open for any ideas. Help.

 

[ccCapt]

Simple. That has happened to me a few times with my bicolored blennie. Shut off your pumps so the water level drops below the intake of the overflow. Siphon the water out of the overflow box and then remove the nut on the bulkhead for either the return line or drain line. Pull the pipe out of the box and use a long stick to push the fish out the hole. If you glued your plumbing to the bulkhead you might not be able to take it all apart.
This is what mine looks like.

 

[mwilliams]

I am assuming when you say hood you are referring to a canopy??? I would suggest get a friend to help lift the hood/canopy off and get one of those bait nets from Acedemy to get him out. They have long handles on them and not much bigger net wise then a fish large fish nets that you can get at walmart.

 

[EVMIII]

Thanks for the ideas. I was successful in getting him out by turning off the return, siphoning out the water down to about an inch, urging him into a net. Now covered to avoid this problem in the future. Thanks. Bud